Rio de Janeiro: A lacklustre India squandered a one goal advantage to go down 1-3 to Belgium in the quarterfinals and crashed out of the men’s hockey competition of the Rio Olympics here on Sunday.
Eight-time gold medallists India, thus, blew a great opportunity to create history after a hiatus of 36 years to climb the medal podium. Belgium, on the other hand, scripted history as they progressed to the semi-finals of the Olympics after a gap of 96 years.
India took the lead through a fine field effort from Akashdeep Singh (15th minute) before Belgium pumped in three field goals from Sebastien Dockier (34th, 45th) and Tom Boon (50th) to dash India’s hopes of their first medal after the gold in 1980 at Moscow.
Having topped Pool ‘A’, Belgium were the favourites to win the encounter and they played like champions dominating the proceedings for most part of the game barring a few minutes in the second quarter after India took the lead late in the first quarter of the clash.
India, on the other hand, looked completely out of sorts as they played catch-up hockey. The forwardline cut a sorry figure as they hardly created any chances which could be gauged from the fact that India failed to earn a single penalty corner.
