Ashok Dhyan Chand
In the Pool-C match of the 14th Hockey World Cup, held at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India had to face the brunt of the old habit of going round once again in the last minute. As a result of this, the fifth position in the fifth position of the Indian team for a definitive win was to draw 2-2 draws against world number three Team Belgium.
India's Harmanpreet Singh (40th minute) and Simranjit Singh (47th) scored goals, while Belgium scored Alexander Hendrix (eighth) and Simon Goganard (56th) with a goal. The match between India and Belgium was expected, this match proved to be a thorn in the same way. Belgian team dominated the first two quarters.
The Indian team, however, did a little disappointment, because the chances for which he got the opportunity to score, he could not recover those opportunities. Because of this, he had to face defeat. Otherwise, this match seemed to be in favor of India. Belgian got two penalty corners in the first two minutes of the match, but India's experienced goalkeeper PR Sreejesh failed them. Belgium got the third penalty corner in the eighth minute. This time he did not make any mistake and Alexander Hendrix gave his team a 1-0 lead.
In the last minute of the first quarter, Akashdeep Singh had a chance to make a goal, but his shot went out of the round post and went out. In such a scenario, Belgium ended the first quarter. In the 21st minute of second quarter, Akashdeep was shown green card. In the 28th minute a shot from Harmanpreet left the side of the Belgian Goalpost.
After this, Mandeep Singh also missed out and the first half ended in the favor of Belgium. India got the first penalty corner in the 35th minute of the third quarter, but the Belgian goalkeeper fired Dilpreet's shot. In the 37th minute, the umpire gave Penalty to Belgium, on which the Indian captain Manpreet Singh took the referral and the penalty was dismissed. In the 39th minute India got another penalty corner which went waste. India got the penalty stroke again in the 39th minute. This time Harmanpreet Singh scored a goal and gave India a 1-1 draw. In the last minute of the third quarter, some good moves were seen from India.
This time Varun gave a fine close to Lalit Upadhyay. Lalit could not keep the ball in control and till the third quarter, the two teams remained equal to 1-1. In the 47th minute of the fourth and final quarter, India had a great success when Simranjit Singh got the ball near Kothajit Singh and put the ball in Belgian goalpost. India had achieved a 2-1 lead. It was only four minutes left to finish the match and India was ahead 2-1.
It seemed as if India would take the remaining four minutes to make the match its name. However, Belgium did not give up, and in the last four minutes, the goalkeeper removed an extra player on the field. Belgian also got the advantage when Simon Gaugnard scored a goal in the 56th minute to equalize his team with a score of 2-2. There was no goal after this and the match ended on equal footing.
Comments