India’s gold medal dreams in hockey at the Paris Olympics came to an end on Tuesday after the team lost to Germany 3-2 in a tight semifinal match.
India maintained its dominance in the first quarter but the German side bounced back in style in the second quarter to seal the game.
India were leading 1-0 at the end of first quarter after skipper Harmanpreet Singh scored in the seventh minute of the match. However, in the third minute of the second quarter Gonzalo Peillat struck for Germany to level the score.
The Germans maintained the lead till the halftime of the play after Christopher Ruhr scored his side’s second goal in the 12th minute of the second quarter.
Though India equaled the score through Sukhjeet Singh’s goal in the third quarter, the German side returned to dominanate the game in the final quarter after Marco Mitkau struck in the 9th minute.
The Indians secured both their goals through penalty corners. The Indians had their chances in the match as they earned as many as 11 penalty corners but converted just one. Germany, on the other hand, secured only four penalty corners.
India will now fight against Spain for the bronze on Thursday while Germany is all set for the summit clash against the Netherlands.
“Playing in the semifinal is not easy. We have come so far, we wanted to change the medal (bronze) that we had got before. We played for that. We will play to win the medal in our next match,” said India’s goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh after the match.
India had won the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
