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Hockey

India lose to Belgium in Semi-final, to play for the bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics

India's dream of going to the Tokyo Olympics final was foiled by Belgium after the men's team suffered a 2-5 defeat.

Indian Mens hockey team
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Indian men's hockey team vs Belgium in the Tokyo Olympics

By

The Bridge Desk

Updated: 3 Aug 2021 8:19 AM GMT

Indian men's hockey team suffered a 5-2 loss against World Cup winners and World no.2 Belgium in the Semi-final of the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday. The Indian team will now be looking forward to play for the bronze medal.

The first half began on a fiery note with Red Lions finding the early breakthrough in the 2nd minute and Loick Luypaert gave the World Cup winners an edge of 1-0 from a penalty corner.

The Indian side kept up with the pace of the game and earned their first PC in the 7th minute and Harmanpreet equalised for the World no.3 side to make it 1-1. It was his fifth goal in this Olympics. Just a minute later Mandeep Singh found the ball inside the opponent's circle and struck past Vincent Vanasch through an immaculate tomahawk shot to lead by 2-1.

The Belgian side continued their barrage of attack throughout the 2nd quarter as they found opportunity a series of penalty corners. This time Alexander Hendrickx availed the chance to level things up at 2-2. At half-time things were drawn level at the Oi Hockey Stadium North Pitch.

In the 38th minute, Sumit was charged by Van Doren in the circle and India won a PC. Harmanpreet's attempt was foiled by the Belgian first rusher. Nothing to separate the two teams by end of Q3.

Down in the last quarter, pressure mounted up for India as Belgium earned a flurry of PCs and Hendrickx scored his second with just 11 minutes left in the match, while India were down to 10-men because of Manpreet's green card.

Things went beyond India's control when Belgium won a penalty stroke and Hendrickx scored his hat-trick. Just 10 seconds before the full hooter, John John Dohmen scored the fifth for the Red Lions.


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