Spanish team arrives in India for FIH Pro League encounters

Spain men's hockey team arrived here on Monday ahead of their two-legged FIH Pro League tie against Olympic bronze medallist India to be played at the city's Kalinga Stadium on February 26 and 27.

Having lost both their opening matches against England earlier this month, world no. 9 Spain will look to register their first win in this season's Pro League. "We are not too concerned about the losses against England. We have just started, we've played only two matches, so I wouldn't put too much emphasis on winning or losing yet. We were really competitive in our opening matches, and will try to play our brand of hockey against India," Spain head coach Max Caldas said.

Spain captain Marc Miralles said they are well prepared to give India a run for their money in the upcoming matches. "Despite the losses, I think there were a lot of things that we did great. So hopeful of learning from our mistakes and improving on them. We need the first wins in this Pro League season, so we keep having faith in the way we trained, and what our coach is telling us to do," he said.

"These past couple of weeks, we've been training a lot, we've seen a lot of games. We know how the Indian team play, their physicality and skills, so we want to stay focused on the matches and we're ready for the challenge. "I think we'll be having an interesting series against India and hopefully, we'll win against them," said Miralles.

The Indian team has won three out of the four matches it has played so far in the FIH Pro League. The team will be playing the first home matches of the league this season.