Tokyo: Indian men’s hockey team defeated Great Britain in the quarterfinals 3-1 on Sunday. Now, the Indian team will face world champions Belgium in semi-finals on Tuesday. Today’s win is historic as India has entered semifinals of Olympics Games after 49 years.
The last time Indian team played in the semifinals of the Olympics was in 1972 Munich Games. But they lost 0-2 to arch-rivals Pakistan.
The India team was ahead from the very beginning, with two goals in first two quarters. Great Britain tried to make a comeback but couldn’t cross the solid defense put up by Indian goalkeeper, PR Sreejesh.
In total, India scored three field goals through Dilpreet Singh (7th minute), Gurjant Singh (16th) and Hardik Singh (57th) to seal the win against GB. Desperate Great Britain’s only goal came in the 45th minute. On 30 July, the Indian team had defeated Japan 5-3 in the Tokyo Olympics. This was India’s fourth win in the mega event. Japan scored three goals but the India were in the lead throughout the game and dominated proceedings