India men one win away from Tokyo Olympics hockey medal, beat Great Britain in quarter-finals

The Indian men’s hockey team secured a 3-1 win over Great Britain in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics quarter-finals on Sunday to inch closer to a medal.

With the win at the Oi Hockey Stadium, Manpreet Singh and Co are just one win away from a medal at Tokyo. India last won a hockey medal, a gold, at Moscow 1980.

The Indian hockey team, ranked fifth, will play world No. 2 Belgium in the semi-final on Tuesday.

If India beat Belgium, who defeated Spain in their final eight clash, in the semis, they will be assured of a medal irrespective of their result in the gold medal match. Should they lose the semi-final, India will play the bronze medal match.

Dilpreet Singh (7th minute), Gurjant Singh (16th minute) and Hardik Singh (57th minute) scored for India. Samuel Ward (45) netted Great Britain’s only goal of the match.

India began the quarter-final match on a cautious note as Great Britain enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession in the early exchanges.

India even conceded the first penalty corner of the match but cleared the danger.

Seven minutes into the first quarter, though, Simranjeet Singh stole possession of the ball on the edge of Great Britain’s D and passed it to an unmarked Dilpreet Singh.

The 21-year-old Dilpreet squeezed the ball past Great Britain’s goalkeeper Oliver Payne to give India the lead against the run of play.

With three minutes left for the first quarter to end, Great Britain created a golden opportunity to equalise but India goalkeeper PR Sreejesh pulled off an incredible double save to deny Samuel Ward.

Just seconds into the second quarter, India went 2-0 up. Hardik Singh intercepted a loose pass near the opposition D and laid the ball off to Gurjant Singh, who twisted and turned to evade his marker, and converted the chance.

Great Britain tried to amp up their attacks but India defended diligently to ensure a two-goal cushion going into the half-time break.

The third quarter followed a similar pattern with Great Britain doing the majority of attacking while India got bodies behind the ball and looked for counter-attacking opportunities.

Towards the end of the quarter, Great Britain won a flurry of penalty corners but PR Sreejesh and the Indian defence stood strong on two occasions to protect India’s lead. However, the third one saw Sam Ward turn the ball in after a deflection to make it 2-1.

With everything to play for in the final quarter, the pressure seemed to be on India with waves after waves of attacks crashing into their D area. PR Sreejesh and the defenders were called in to intervene time and again to save India’s slim lead.

Around the 57-minute mark, Hardik Singh afforded India some respite from the onslaught as he carried the ball forward from near India’s D and tested Oliver with a shot. The Great Britain custodian saved the first shot but Hardik scored from the rebound to make it 3-1. The goal wrapped up the match.

Australia and Germany face off in the other semi-final.