Tokyo : India men’s hockey team defeated defending Olympic Champion Argentina by 3-1 in their fourth group A game here at Oi Hockey Stadium- North Pitch on Thursday. With this win, the Indian men’s hockey team has qualified for the quarterfinals in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
India started the match at a good pace as defenders gave no clear-cut chance to defending champion to find that rhythm in midfield. Dilpreet Singh had India’s best chance in quarter one but it was kept out by the Argentine goalkeeper by a very good save. India’s finishing was not clinical even in the second quarter and it remained scoreless after the end of the first half. In the third quarter, the pressure by Indian forwards finally delivered as Varun Kumar gave the team a much-needed breakthrough after converting a very well
worked penalty corner. In the dying minutes of the quarter, Graham Reid’s men were close to double their lead but Argentina goalkeeper Juan Manuel came big for his team again by saving a nicely worked PC by the Indian team. In the fourth quarter, Argentina responded well by converting a PC and levelled the match against India as Casella stormed the ball past Sreejesh. With the match going for a draw, Vivek Sagar Prasad came with an absolute poacher of a finish to regain the lead for the team. Minutes later Harmanpreet Singh came clutch for India from PC and sealed the match for India. After this victory, India has now won three matches in their group. (Agencies)
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