Tokyo Olympics: Hockey Day 12 — India vs Germany — Bronze medal match — Preview, schedule, Live Streaming, when and where to watch

India takes on Germany in a mouth-watering clash for the bronze medal of the men's field hockey competition on Thursday.

Quite aptly, perhaps, the third and fourth-ranked sides of the hockey world clash for bronze while the top two teams will battle for gold.

Australia face arch-rivals Belgium in the final later in the day.

India and Germany have played exactly 100 matches thus far with the Germans winning a whopping 53 times. The Indians have ended up on the winning side on 20 occasions.

The Men in Blue have a more decent record against the four-time gold medalists in the Olympic Games. The two hockey giants have faced each other 11 times in the history of the Games with both sides winning 4 matches apiece while 3 ended in a draw.

While the Indians prefer a free-flowing game, the Germans have an affinity for the vertical passes across the length of the field with a view to lure players forward to create gaps.

"The team has the experience of playing them in recent times. We are ready for the challenge."

Indian Men's Hockey Skipper, Manpreet Singh says that the team is ready for Germany.https://t.co/xO5w7aNZFb#HaiTayyar #IndiaKaGame #Tokyo2020 #TeamIndia #WeAreTeamIndia #Hockey

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) August 4, 2021

Even so, the current German side is a lot more attacking than what their predecessors were, having scored 19 goals in their 5 group matches.at Tokyo 2020.

Indian hockey fans remember to this day, the bronze-medal match of the Hockey World League Finals in which the hosts beat Germany by a 2-1 margin at the Kalinga Stadium. Manpreet Singh and co. will also recall that the German team had lost the services of several players owing to illness while in Bhubaneswar and yet ran the Indians close.

The Germans have won two successive Olympic gold medals as recently as Beijing 2008 and London 2012, ending up with a bronze in Rio 2016 just as they did in Athens 2004.

Hockey fans are in for a treat when the two giants meet for the 101st time at the Oi Hockey Stadium. While the Indians are looking to relive the glory days of the past, the Germans aim for a fifth successive podium finish which is a staggering record by any standard.

The two teams met for the first time in Munich in 1932 with the Indians winning 6-0. It was in March, earlier this year, that India last played Germany in a tour match that ended in a 1-1 draw.

The epic clash begins at 0700 IST on Thursday, August 5.

Where to watch?

You can catch all the action LIVE in Sony Sports Network channels in India. Here are the details of broadcasters in some more countries:

Japan: The Japan Consortium

USA: NBC Universal

UK: BBC, Eurosport

China: CCTV

Australia: Seven Network

Germany: ARD-ZDF

Brazil: Grupo Globo, Bandsports

Spain: RTVE

Italy: RAI

France: Eurosport

South Africa: SABC