Paris Olympic 2024: Indian hockey team misses golden opportunity, suffers 2-3 loss in semi-final against Germany

Indian hockey team after losing semi-final against Germany (Getty)
Indian hockey team after losing semi-final against Germany (Getty)

Highlights:

Indian hockey team suffered a 2-3 loss against Germany in the semi-finals.

They will now be facing Spain in the Bronze medal match.

The Indian hockey team's dream of winning a gold medal in the Paris Olympics was dashed once again after 44 years with a 2-3 defeat to Germany in the semi-finals. India won the bronze medal by defeating Germany in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Now the same Germany took revenge by defeating India in the semi-finals and made it to the finals for the seventh time. The reason for the Indian hockey team's defeat was its inability to score a goal from the penalty corner again. India got 12 penalty corners during the entire match and only two were converted into goals. In response, Germany scored one goal out of seven penalty corners and put India behind by scoring two field goals. Now the Indian hockey team will face the Spanish team in the bronze medal match. On the other hand, Germany made it to the finals for the seventh time and will have its final match with the Netherlands. The Indian hockey team again missed the finals after 44 years of the 1980 Olympics.

 

India scored in the first seven-minute

 

India captain Harmanpreet Singh got the first penalty corner in the second minute itself against world champion Germany but he missed the goal. After this, again in the third minute, Harmanpreet again got a penalty corner but the goal could not be scored. In the seventh minute of the match, Indian captain Harmanpreet again got three penalty corners but he converted the third penalty corner to give India an early lead of 1-0. After this, no goals were scored from either side in the first quarter.

 

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Germany scores twice to make return

 

Germany started attacking the Indian hockey team with a 1-0 lead in the second quarter and got the result in the third minute itself. When Germany's Gonzalo scored a goal from the penalty corner in the 18th minute of the match, the score was equal to 1-1. However, the German team did not stop even after this and continued attacking. Then the ball hit the feet of Germanpreet Singh in the goal area and Germany got a penalty. In the 27th minute, Christopher scored the second goal for Germany on a penalty stroke, giving Germany a 2-1 lead and after this, the second quarter ended.

 

India makes comeback with penalty corner

 

In the third quarter of the match, the Indian hockey team again took hold and India got its 11th penalty corner of the match in the 36th minute. But this time, Sukhjit Singh scored a goal in place of captain Harmanpreet and brought India to a 2-2 draw. After this, no goal was scored in the third quarter and the score remained equal at 2-2.

 

Germany turns the table in the final quarter

 

In the fourth and last 15 minutes of the match, Germany got three penalty corners in the 46th minute of the match. But India's defense protected the goal post like a wall and did not allow any goal to be scored. After this, Germany got the fourth penalty corner of the match and PR. Sreejesh stopped the ball with strong goalkeeping. But in the 54th minute of the match, Germany's Marco put his team ahead 3-2 with an excellent field gold by dodging Sreejesh.

 

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