Tokyo 2020: India Has Secured Quarter-Final Berth In Hockey With One Group Match Left

Tokyo: India’s men’s hockey performance in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 has been inspiring, in some sort. After losing 1-7 against Australia, India staged a good comeback by winning against Spain and Argentina. 

India defeated Argentina 1-3 in a match that became interesting in the last two-quarters of the match. Varun scored the first goal for India in the 43rd minute. Argentina scored one goal back quickly in the 48th minute, but Indian attackers Vivek and Harmanpreet scored two back to back goals right at the end of the match in the 58th and 59th minute. 

Way to go #TeamIndia

Congratulations for reaching #hockey quarterfinals @Tokyo2020. Varun Kumar, @13harmanpreet, Vivek Sagar Prasad scored for #India.#Punjab is proud its athletes as #IND bt #ARG 3-1#TokyoOlympics #hockeyindia #OlympicGames #Olympicspic.twitter.com/0LBzifmhSM

— Rana Gurmit S Sodhi (@iranasodhi) July 29, 2021

With this win, India has qualified for the knockout stage from Group A along with Australia. This is a great achievement by the Indian team as there is one Group match still to be played. The last group game will be played against the host Japan on 30 July at 6:30 pm IST. 

Australia, India, Spain, New Zealand, Argentina and Japan are the six teams in Group A out of which 4 teams will qualify for the knock-out stages. India and Australia have already qualified. 

India’s Quarter Final match will be played on 1 August 2021. The draw will be finalized after all 8 qualifying teams are confirmed. 

Women’s Hockey

While the men’s team is enjoying some success, the women’s team has lost three games in a row. The Indian women’s hockey team suffered a crushing defeat in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics as Great Britain won the game 4-1 on Wednesday. After losing to Germany in their second match, this is India’s third successive defeat. In their opening game, Netherlands had defeated India on Sunday.