On Thursday, India defeated gold medalist Argentina 3-1 in a preliminary league match in Group A of the Tokyo Olympics. India scored twice in the final two minutes. India has clinched second place with one match left against Japan. India’s victory against Japan in the last round of the group ensures their spot in the quarter-finals.
The Indian men’s hockey team continued their impressive play to win for the second time in a row. After beating Spain, the team won the Argentina team on Thursday to advance to the quarter-finals. The Indian team scored 3 goals against Argentina in an aggressive game, who scored only 1 goal. With a 3-1 victory, India secured a place in the last four.
This is the third win of the Indian team in four matches. The only loss they faced is against Australia after beating New Zealand in the first match. India has since beaten Spain and then Argentina.
Barren first half:
Both the teams could not score a single goal in the first quarter, and the score was 0-0 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter also follows the same story, and it is also over without scoring a single goal.
The third quarter brings opportunities for the Indian team:
Third-quarter brings good news for the Indian team. After the first half with our scoring, Varun Kumar, who replaced Birendra Lakra in India’s 16-man squad for this match, opened India’s score tally in the 43rd minute with a penalty corner goal. In the third quarter, the Indian team scored 1-0 in their favour.
The fourth quarter goes in favour of Argentina:
Argentina’s chances were squandered in the first three quarters by the Indian team, but they rallied back fiercely in the fourth quarter.
Argentina got their first penalty corner, and Argentina’s Casella Schuth converted with a superb drag-flick to tie and put the score at 1-1.
Thrilling last 2 minutes:
In the last two minutes, India scored twice to secure the win. Harmanpreet Singh scored India’s eighth penalty corner to make it 3-1 after Varun Sagar Prasad converted on Dilpreet Singh’s rebound to make it 2-1.
With this, India sealed a spectacular win against Argentina and assured their place in the quarter-finals.
As a result of those two goals, India’s goal difference dropped to zero. After the devastating 7-1 loss against World No. 1 Australia, India’s goal difference had fallen to -5.
With wins in the two matches against Spain and Argentina, the Indian team is almost assured of their second place.
