Tokyo Olympics Hockey: All set to battle Germany for Olympics bronze, says Manpreet Singh

The Indian Men’s Hockey team is all set to lock horns with Germany in pursuit of the Olympics Bronze Medal on Thursday. India lost to Belgium in the semi-final clash thrashing the dream of Indian Hockey fans to see their National Team playing an Olympics final for the first time in 49 years. India started the match on a high, leading the match 2-1 until Belgium made a comeback and pushed the scoreboard to 5-2 at the end of the match. 

Manpreet Singh feels the entire country's support is what has kept the Team's morale high

“I think we should just forget about what happened in the semi-final and just pull all our focus and energy into the game against Germany. The team has the experience of playing them in recent times. We are ready for the challenge,” Manpreet Singh, Indian Hockey team captain while speaking to ANI on the eve of the Bronze medal clash.

Prime Minister Modi was one of the people to call the team, asking them not to feel disappointed and look forward to giving their best against Germany on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, the Coach of the National Team, Graham Reid also expressed that team India should have handled the pressure better by scoring goals when they were leading the scoreboard. “At 2-1, we created a lot of opportunities, and really we should have converted. We couldn’t get that scoreboard pressure to go to 3-1. When it was 2-2 also, we had the opportunity to go 3-2. With the number of opportunities at that time, we didn’t get that scoreboard pressure back on Belgium. There were a few periods of play when we lost the ball and they scored, and we spiralled a little bit after that. I think we paid the price of not getting that scoreboard pressure back onto them when we could have,” said Reid while speaking to ANI. Meanwhile, the Indian Women's Hockey Team also lost their semi-final match against Argentina and will play for an Olympics bronze now.

(ANI)

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