Highlights India vs Germany Men’s Hockey Bronze Medal Match Score And Updates Tokyo Olympics ((IND 5-4 GER Full Time)
Tokyo: Hello and welcome to our hockey coverage of IND vs GER, highlights and Updates Tokyo Olympics Men’s Playoff Hockey Match highlights between India and Germany played at the Oi Stadium, North Pitch in Tokyo. This has been a comeback for the ages by the Indian team. With two goals down at one point, India have gone on to win the bronze medal match by beating Germany 5-4 here at the Tokyo Olympics. India turned the match on its head by scoring two very important goals in the third quarter that had placed them in a position of ascendency. The fourth quarter saw them defend their heart out, sometimes putting their body on the line and eventually holding on to the slender one-goal advantage after the Germans reduced the deficit to 5-4, giving them a fair chance of coming back into the match. Wasn’t to be. India create history by ending the 41-year wait for an Olympic medal. Earlier, the second quarter saw Germany score twice in a matter of minutes that saw India trailing 1-3, thanks to some poor defending. But the Men in Blue came back strongly in the last five minutes of the second quarter and scored twice to get them back on level terms (3-3) at half-time. India had conceded the early lead in the first quarter as Germany scored in the first few seconds of the match. India from there on played the catching up game while Germany created far more chances than the Men in Blue. Germans went into the second quarter with a 1-0 lead against India in the bronze medal match.
World no.3 India will have to pull up its socks and avoid repeating the same mistakes which it made against Belgium if they desire to stand on the podium here. Despite having four world-class drag-flickers in its armoury in Rupinder Pal Singh, vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar and Amit Rohidas, the Indians have a poor penalty corner conversion record, utilising just one out of the five they secured against world no.1 Belgium on Tuesday.
The onus now is on the Indian defence and the likes of Harmanpreet, Rupinder, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas and star goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will have to be on their toes to come out triumphant against the might of Germans.
The Indians also need to avoid unnecessary tackles in front of their circle with skipper Manpreet Singh being guilty of getting a card at the start of the fourth quarter, which resulted in three back-to-back penalty corners for Belgium, the last of which was converted by Hendrickx to shift the momentum of the match in their favour.
Going by rankings, there is hardly anything to differentiate between the two sides as India are currently on third place and Germany on fourth. But Germany would be a tough nut to crack for the Indians. Having lost 1-3 against Australia in the semifinals here, the Germans would be determined to prove a point. The clash between India and Germany would be a repeat of the bronze medal clash of the 2017 Hockey World League Finals. Back then, the Indians triumphed 2-1 against a vastly depleted German team.
Having failed to secure the gold medal here after two successive yellow metals in the 2008 and 2012 Games, the Germans had to settle for a bronze in Rio 2016 and they would be determined to at least return with a podium finish from here. Germany are the most successful hockey nation in the Olympics after India with four gold medals. Striker Lukas Wendfeder is in great form, having scored six goals in the tournament so far.
The Indian defence is expected to have a busy outing on Thursday with the likes of Wendfeder, Florian Fuchs and Christopher Ruhr in the German side. In the Olympics, both sides have faced each other 11 times recording four wins each and three matches ending in draws.
India Squad: P.R. Sreejesh (GK); Manpreet Singh (C), Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Birendra Lakra, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Sing