The Indian men’s hockey team has made a great start to its campaign in the Paris Olympics 2024. On Saturday (July 27), in its first match of Pool B, India defeated New Zealand 3-2. Mandeep Singh (24th minute), Vivek Sagar Prasad (34th minute) and captain Harmanpreet Singh (59th minute) scored goals for India. Sam Lane (8th minute) and Simon Child (53rd minute) scored goals for New Zealand. The Indian team, which won the Olympic medal in Tokyo after 41 years, now has to play Rio Olympic champion Argentina in the next match of Pool B on July 29 and the Indian team, which lost nine penalty corners in this match, will have to overcome this shortcoming.
This was how the competition between the two teams was
New Zealand had a great start in the match and took the lead in the 8th minute. On the other hand, there was no goal scored for India in the first quarter. In the 9th minute of the second quarter, Mandeep Singh gave India equality by scoring a goal on the rebound. Till halftime both the teams were tied at 1-1. In the third quarter, Vivek Sagar gave India the lead by scoring a goal. The last quarter was very exciting.
FT:
India 🇮🇳 3️⃣ – 2️⃣ 🇳🇿 New ZealandMandeep Singh 24′
Vivek Sagar Prasad 34′
Harmanpreet Singh 59′ (PS)Lane Same 8′ (PC)
Child Simon 53′ (PC)Just the start we wanted in our first game of the group stage against New Zealand. 💪🏽
3 Points in the bag, One Win – One game… pic.twitter.com/XxBZr0MUGm— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) July 27, 2024
In this quarter, New Zealand got three consecutive penalty corners in the 52nd minute and on the third minute, Childs stunned the Indian camp by scoring an equalizing goal on the rebound. This was the 147th goal of Child, who has played 307 international matches so far. After this, India got a penalty stroke on the counter attack in the 59th minute, which Harmanpreet converted into a goal. In other matches of Pool B, Belgium defeated Ireland 2-0 and Australia defeated Argentina 1-0.
Indian hockey team has been placed in Pool-B. Apart from India, Pool-B has New Zealand, Argentina, Ireland, Belgium and Australia. Whereas Pool-A includes Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Spain, South Africa and the host country France. India should not have any problem in winning the match against Ireland. But to win against Argentina, Belgium and Australia, it will have to perform its best. The Indian team will face Argentina on 29th July. Then India will face Ireland on 30th July, Belgium on 1st August and Australia on 2nd August.
Indian hockey team for Paris Olympics 2024
goalkeeper😛 R Sreejesh.
defender: Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Sanjay.
midfielder: Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad.
Forward: Abhishek, Sukhjit Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh.
alternative player : Neelkant Sharma, Jugraj Singh, Krishna Bahadur Pathak.