Live Hockey Scores, India vs Belgium, Tokyo Olympics, Semifinal: Big Test For IND Defence

Hockey is giving a lot of cheer to Indian fans. The Indian women's national hockey team stunned Australia to enter the Tokyo Olympics semifinal on Monday. Can Indian men enter the final for the first time after 1980 Moscow Olympics? The last time India played a semifinal at the Olympics was in the 1972 Munich Games. India ended with a bronze after losing to Pakistan 2-0 in the semis. On Tuesday, the Indian men's hockey faces world champions Belgium. The Belgians have been in prolific form but India have done well against the FIH Pro League champions in recent times. Tuesday will also see Australia facing four-time Olympic gold medallist Germany in the other Tokyo 2020 semifinal. Get live scores of India vs Belgium here. (MEDAL TALLY | AUGUST 3 SCHEDULE)


On the cusp of creating history, India will be gunning for a victory on the back of their recent showing against Belgium. India have tasted success against Belgium in the FIH Hockey Pro League in 2020 where they beat the world champions 2-1 in their second game and after losing 3-2 in the first in Bhubaneswar.

In a 'Test' series before the FIH Pro League, India had beaten Belgium 5-1, 2-1 and 2-0 in 2019. At the Odisha Men's Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar in 2018, the Indian team had drawn 2-2 in their Pool C encounter against the Red Lions and had secured a 1-1 draw in the FIH Champions Trophy in Breda the same year where India won a Silver Medal.

But in a tournament like the Olympic Games, head-to-head stats make little difference, emphasised team Indian skipper Manpreet Singh.

"As far as Belgium is concerned, obviously they and Australia have been sharing the World No.1 spot for the last 18-24 months. So, in that sense, Belgium will be a very difficult opponent. But we have played them a fair bit in the past and have the experience of doing well against them too. So, we need to focus on the things that we can do against them and make sure that we are much more disciplined in defence and our structure is much better," said Manpreet.

Pool B winners Belgium were given a huge scare by a Spanish team that finished fourth in Pool A but were magnificent in the quarterfinals, holding a 1-0 lead before Belgium fought back to claim a 3-1 win. Tournament top scorer Alexander Hendrickx scored twice to take his personal tally at these Olympics to 11 goals in six games, moving him five goals clear of nearest rival, Blake Govers of Australia.  

India’s dream of winning a first Olympic gold medal for 40 years moved a step closer to reality after battling to a 3-1 quarterfinal win against Great Britain.  India opened up a two-goal lead in the contest through superbly taken field goals from Dilpreet Singh and Gurjant Singh, with Great Britain guilty of some sloppy defending on both occasions to trail 2-0 going into half time.

Great Britain were the better team in the third quarter and Sam Ward pulled one back past the rock solid Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh. But Hardik Singh dealt the killer blow by firing into the bottom right corner to seal India’s big win.  

Belgium have scored a whopping 29 goals in six matches, including nine each against South Africa and Canada in the group stage. The Red Lions have conceded just 10 goals, the least in the competition so far. In contrast, India have scored 18 goals and conceded 14 in their six matches.

SQUADS

India: Manpreet Singh (captain), PR Sreejesh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Birendra Lakra, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Sumit, Gurjant Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Varun Kumar, Mandeep Singh and Simranjeet Singh.

Belgium: Felix Denayer (captain), Vincent Vanasch, Arthur Van Doren, John-john Dohmen, Florent Van Aubel, Sebastien Dockier, Cedric Charlier, Gauthier Boccard, Nicolas De Kerpel, Alexander Hendrickx, Simon Gougnard, Arthur De Sloover, Antoine Kina, Loick Luypaert, Victor Wegnez, Tom Boon