India men beat Japan 5-3 in a high-scoring match, finish Tokyo Olympics hockey group second
Australia led the group by one point. The Indian hockey team, who won three straight matches, will play in the quarter-finals next.
The Indian men's hockey team ended the group phase of Tokyo Olympics with a 5-3 win against hosts Japan at the Oi Hockey Stadium on Friday and will now play in the quarter-final next.
India finished second in Pool A with four wins -- including three on the trot -- and a loss, scoring 12 points. They sit one point behind Australia and ahead of Argentina and Spain. New Zealand and Japan occupy the last two spots.
The top four teams from each of the two pools qualify for the quarters.
In the high-scoring match against Japan, Harmanpreet Singh (13th minute), Gurjant Singh (17th minute, 57th minute), Shamser Singh (34th minute) and Nilakanta Sharma (51st minute) scored the goals for India.
Kenta Tanaka (19th minute), Kota Watanabe (33rd minute), Kazuma Murata (59th minute) converted for Japan.
India had their first opening in the sixth minute when Vivek Sagar Prasad took a shot from the right flank but found Japanese goalkeeper Takashi Yoshikawa in the way.
In the 12th minute, Gurjant Singh charged and put the ball in the heart of Japanese D to earn India’s first penalty corner of the match. Drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh made no mistake as India led 1-0 in the 13th minute.
The second quarter started with India capitalising on a loose Japanese pass which was collected and placed by Vivek Sagar Prasad. Simranjeet Singh then placed the ball for Gurjant Singh**,** who pushed the ball in the Japanese net in the 17th minute.
Two minutes later, Japan’s Kenta Tanaka breached the Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh to reduce the goal difference to 2-1.
Japan bounced back in the third quarter when captain Manpreet Singh lost possession in midfield and Japan’s Kota Watanabe punished with an equaliser in the 33rd minute.
A minute later, Shamser Singh deflected a shot from Nilakanta Sharma to lead 3-2. India got their second penalty corner in the 43rd minute but Harmanpreet’s drag flick was denied.
India extended the lead to 4-2 in the 51st minute when Nilakanta Sharma successfully deflected a close-range pass from Surender Kumar. India then had two unsuccessful penalty corners in the 53rd and 55th minute.
Japan countered with their first penalty corner, but PR Sreejesh stood strong.
In the 57th minute, India extended the lead by converting a penalty corner variation by Gurjant Singh.
Japan, however, didn't give up and launched a counter to reduce the margin when Kenta Tanaka dribbled past two Indian defenders and PR Sreejesh from the left and Kazuma Murata collected a rebound to score in the 59th minute.