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Tokyo Olympics: Hockey Day 7 — India vs Japan — Preview, schedule, Live Streaming, when and where to watch

A preview of the Men's Hockey Group A match between India and Japan to be played on Friday

Indian Hockey Men Team Olympics
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Indian Hockey Men Team (Source Hockey India)

By

Subhashish Majumdar

Updated: 1 Aug 2022 9:52 AM GMT

The Indian men's hockey team will play their last group match of the Tokyo Olympics against Asian Games champions Japan.

Graham Reid's team have already booked a place in the quarterfinals while Japan is still looking for the first win of the competition.

The Indian men began their campaign with a 3-2 win over New Zealand but crashed to a demoralising 1-7 defeat against World No 1 Australia.

Amidst mounting criticism regarding the team selections and preparedness of the side, the Indians silenced their detractors with two successive wins against Spain (3-0) and Argentina (3-1) which have not only got them past the group stage but also assured Manpreet and co. of a top-two finish.



The suspense now revolves around which team the Indians will meet in Sunday's quarterfinal. The Netherlands and Great Britain have advanced to the knock-outs but the final standings in the group still remain unclear.

What is now certain is that Belgium will finish as the table-toppers in Group B while Germany and South Africa are in the race for the fourth quarterfinal spot.

As far as Friday's fixture is concerned, the Indians haven't lost to Japan since 2013 and have managed to inflict some heavy defeats against the Japanese like in the Asian Games champions in which the eventual gold medalists lost to India by a 0-8 margin in the group stage of the tournament.

Seigfried Aikman's Samurai Japan will be sure to make life difficult for the Indians in what may be their last encounter of Tokyo 2020 while the Indian strikers would be eager to provide some fireworks as well.

The match begins at 1500 IST.

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