Rio de Janeiro: A win away from scripting their best-ever showing in Olympics after 36 years, Indian men’s hockey team would look to cut down on silly errors and raise their game by leaps and bounds to upstage a formidable Belgium in the quarterfinal of the Rio Games here on Sunday.
India had already achieved a feat by qualifying for the knockout stage of Olympics after a long hiatus and, come Sundya, the PR Sreejesh-led side would like to go one step further in their quest for an elusive Olympic medal.
India qualified for the last eight round after finishing fourth in Pool ‘B’ with two wins, two losses and a draw, accumulating seven points in the process.
India won against Ireland (3-2) and Argentina (2-1) but lost two close encounters against reigning Olympic champions Germany (1-2) and silver medallist Netherlands (1-2) before they were held 2-2 by minnows Canada in their last preliminary encounter.
Belgium, on the other hand, topped Pool ‘A’ with four wins out of five games. The Red Lions’ only loss came against New Zealand (1-3) in their final group match on Friday.
Going by world rankings, there is hardly anything to differentiate between the two teams as India are placed fifth while Belgium is just one rung below at sixth position in FIH chart.
But in the Games so far, Belgium are on red hot form and have stunned strong gold medal contenders and world champions Australia in the pool stages.
Women thrashed by 5-star argies
The Indian women’s hockey team suffered a humiliating 0-5 loss against higher-ranked Argentina in their final Pool ‘B’ fixture to end their campaign on Saturday.
Martina Cavallero (16th minute, 29th), Maria Granatto (23rd), Carla Rebecchi (26th) and Agustina Albertarrio (27th) scored for Argentina, while India drew a blank to slump to their fourth successive loss in the Rio Games at the Olympic hockey centre here.
With this loss, India finished their six-team Pool ‘B’ campaign on a disappointing note after returning to Olympics after 36 years.
