Tokyo, Japan, August 3, 2021: For three quarters of India’s men’s hockey semi-final against 2018 world champions Belgium on Tuesday morning, the millions of fans around the world were allowed to dream of gold one again.
But the big, powerful Europeans had other ideas – and, from 2-2, rattled home three unanswered goals in the last quarter to run out 5-2 winners under a scorching sun at Oi Hockey Stadium.
The eight-time Olympic champions have captivated the people back home with their run to the last four, buoyed by a 3-1 victory over Great Britain in the quarter-finals.
And, despite a shaky start to their semi-final when they fell behind in only the second minute to a Loick Luypaert strike from a penalty corner, India recovered well and led 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
Harmanpreet Singh equalized from a penalty corner in the seventh minute and a brilliant back-hand strike from Mandeep Singh two minutes later gave India the lead for the first time.
From 2-1 down, Belgium’s left back Alexander Hendrickx took over and scored the next three goals on 19, 49 and 53 minutes – two from penalty corners and his hat trick goal from a penalty stroke to make it 4-2 with just seven minutes remaining.
India threw caution to the wind and took off their goalkeeper PR Sreejesh with 2:58 remaining. Inevitably, the Belgians broke through and John-John Dohmen added the fifth into an empty net with only seconds left on the clock.
India can still win the bronze – playing either Australia or Germany on Thursday – and that would still count as a major accomplishment as they have not been on the podium since winning the eighth and last of their gold medals at Moscow 1980.
Captain Manpreet Singh said there was still everything to play for.
“It was a hard game and we fought well but Belgium are the world champions and played a super game. We held them until half-time but after that they kept their cool and found their momentum,” he said.
“Now we have the chance at the bronze medal and that would be great for Indian hockey - to win our first Olympic medal in 41 years.”