Tokyo Olympics 2020: India men's hockey team's road to bronze medal

India men's hockey team is the most successful side at the Olympics in the sport but their record in the last four decades has not been great. With the last medal (gold) coming in 1980 Moscow Games, the decades-long wait for the next one had become extremely painful.

But the agony was over on Thursday as Team India defeated Germany 5-4 in the bronze medal match to end the drought. It's been quite a journey for the men's team which failed to qualify for the 2008 Games, finished last in 2012 London and ranked eighth in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Here's how they clinched the bronze medal.

Pool A matches

India vs New Zealand

India began their campaign against New Zealand and with a narrow 3-2 win. Harmanpreet Singh got two goals for India while Rupinder Pal Singh added the other. India opened the scoring but New Zealand kept finding the equaliser before Hamranpreet's 33rd-minute goal proved to be decisive.

India vs Australia

The second pool game was when India were handed their first and biggest defeat of the 2020 Games — a 7-1 loss to Australia. Dilpreet Singh opened the scoring in the second minute but the Aussies fired back with seven goals with three of them coming in the second quarter.

India vs Spain

India quickly bounced back from the Australia defeat with a 3-0 win over Spain. Simranjeet Singh scored one and Rupinder got two more.

India vs Argentina

A match against defending champions was not going to be easy but this is the game where India showed what they are capable of. They handed a 3-1 defeat to Argentina with penalty corner goals coming from Vivek Prasad, Varun Kumar and Harmanpreet.

India vs Japan

The easiest game of the pool was the last encounter in the group stage for India. They defeated Japan 5-3 to qualify for the quarter-finals from the second position of Pool A. Gurjant Singh scored two goals while other scorers were Harmanpreet, Shamsher Singh and Nilakanta Sharma.

Quarter-finals

India vs Great Britain

In the quarter-finals, India defeated Britain 3-1 to enter the semi-finals of the Olympics Games after 49 years. Britain started strongly in the match but it was Dilpreet Singh who scored first as India took the lead. Gurjant scored the second goal to make it 2-0. Britain then struck back to find one goal and threatened continuously with PR Sreejesh pulling off one after other incredible saves. Hardik scored in the 57th minute to assure a win for India.

Semi-finals

India vs Belgium

It was heartbreak in semis with 2-5 loss. Luick Luypaert scored in the second minute of the match to give Belgium the lead. India then hit back with two goals with Harmanpreet and Mandeep scoring but that was it for India. Alexander Hendrickx scored a hat-trick while John-John Dohmen scored one at the end to break Indian hearts.

Bronze medal match

India vs Germany

All was not lost after the Belgium defeat. India had the bronze medal match and against Germany, they won it 5-4 to end the 41-year medal wait. Simranjeet scored a brace, Hardik Singh, Harmanpreet and Rupinder also pitched in with goals as India won a thrilling encounter to spark a nationwide celebration.

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