'Looking to beat Wales by margin of 8-10 goals': Indian Hockey stars say before WC game

After a 2-0 win over Spain and a goalless draw against England, the Indian men's team are all set to take on Wales in their third and final FIH Hockey World Cup 2022 group-stage game on January 19. The game will begin live at 7:00 PM IST, from the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. Ahead of what promises to be an exciting clash between the two sides, Mandeep Singh and some of his teammates gave their take on how they would like to approach the game against Wales.

'Responsibility on forwards': Mandeep Singh

While speaking ahead of the India vs Wales FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2022 clash, Mandeep Singh said (as quoted by ANI), "Definitely it is a very important match which we have to win by a big margin. We played well against Spain as well as against England but the goals were not coming out. You can say that luck was not our way. The team was playing well but the ball was not going to the goal post. We have worked on it and seen our videos too where to create space and from where to hit."

Mandeep then went on to explain why the forwards needed to take more responsibility for scoring more goals by adding, "Definitely for forwards the responsibility is to score goals. It is not that we have to play individually to score goals. We have to play as a team and pass the ball where needed in order to score the goal. We have to get either a PC or a goal going into the 'D'. If we get a PC then we have one of the best drag flickers to score goals."

Similarly to Mandeep Singh, defender Nilam Sanjeep Xess told ANI, "Our planning is to win against Wales by a margin of 8-10 goals." He then went on to speak about how his first Hockey World Cup campaign was going by adding, "I am very happy that my first World Cup is in my home state in Odisha. It feels great to play with so much of the crowd coming to support you. So, it is a great feeling."