World champions Belgium showed brilliant performance in the last quarter to beat India 5-2 to make it to the finals of the second consecutive Olympics. Now, the team has a chance to become an Olympic champion along with being a world champion. Belgium reached the finals for the first time in the Rio Olympics five years ago. At the same time, this defeat has given a big blow to India's medal hopes in Tokyo Olympics. However, there is now a chance for India to win a bronze medal. If it wins, it will be India's first medal in hockey after 41 years.
India last won a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. During the match, the Indian team fought fiercely and showed the ability to turn the match on their side with their game. But Belgium achieved this victory in the last quarter with a champion performance. The Indian team tried to control the game from the third quarter after getting level at the end of the second quarter.
Two minutes before the end of the game, India pressed the panic button by fielding an extra player. In this situation Sreejesh came out. In this situation, India took down the entire team in the attack. But they did not get the benefit of this, but Belgium took advantage of it and managed to make the victory more attractive by scoring the fifth goal.
India and Belgium started the game very fast. This made the first quarter very exciting. Belgium took the lead in the very first minute by scoring a penalty corner. But instead of coming under pressure from this goal, India came back strongly and expressed their intentions by scoring two goals in the seventh and eighth minutes to take a 2-1 lead. The pressure of playing against world champions has never been seen on India.
Belgium, having trouble creating a rift in the Indian defence, initially changed the strategy of using the flanks for attacks and adopted the strategy of penetrating the Indian defense by bringing the ball to the center to advance. This strategy also appeared to be working.
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