Belgium dash India men's hopes of gold in semifinals

India’s brilliant run in the Tokyo Olympics men’s hockey tournament came to an end with a 2-5 defeat to world champions Belgium in the semifinals here on Tuesday.
Belgium dash India men's hopes of gold in semifinals

TOKYO: India's brilliant run in the Tokyo Olympics men's hockey tournament came to an end with a 2-5 defeat to world champions Belgium in the semifinals here on Tuesday.

The Indians fought well, went 2-1 up in the first quarter but slack defending and conceding too many penalty corners did them in as Belgium fought back to level the scores and then scored thrice in the fourth quarter to seal a place in the final.

Alexander Hendrickx, one of the most feared drag-flickers in the world, scored a hat-trick to seal Belgium's victory. Hendrickx, who leads the scoring with 14 goals now, scored two off penalty corners in the 19th and 49th minute and converted a penalty stroke in the 53rd min to put the match beyond India's reach. Loick Fanny Luypaert (2nd min) and John John Dohmen (60th min) scored a goal apiece for Belgium, while Harmanpreet Singh (7th min) and Mandeep Singh (11th) were the Indian goal scorers in the match that started at a fast pace.

Though the Indians lost the match, they were not disgraced as they matched the Belgians, who lost to Argentina in the Rio Olympics, for three of the four quarters.

The Indian attacks worked well in the first two quarters but the defence looked stretched from the start of the match — committing mistakes both in ideation and execution as the Belgians came back from behind and sealed a good victory.

The defence that did so well against Great Britain in the quarterfinals, committed basic errors in their eagerness to thwart the Belgians. Instead of tackling them outside the shooting circle, they tried to stop them inside. The Belgians played smart and, instead of going for field goals, created penalty corners to give their drag-flickers the opportunity to break India's resistance. IANS

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