Tokyo Oympics: India face free-scoring Belgium in males’s hockey semis as first medal since 1980 beckons

It has been 41 years since an Indian hockey group gained a medal on the Olympics and now, that wait could possibly be over in 60 probably agonising minutes on Monday, or prolonged to August 5 when the bronze and gold medal matches are scheduled to happen. After getting back from their 1-7 defeat to Australia in a medical trend within the group stage, India, the third-ranked group within the worldwide hockey standings, beat Great Britain to justify their rating and reached the semi-final for the primary time since 1976.

However, will probably be no cakewalk for India to succeed in the gold medal match. There are solely two groups ranked above India on the planet, considered one of them handed India a hiding within the group stage whereas the opposite, the second-placed Belgium, are their opponents on Tuesday. Australia scored a whopping 22 targets in 5 matches in Group A however Belgium, who’re additionally the reigning world champions, slammed in 26 targets in as many matches in Group B.Belgium ended India’s marketing campaign on the 2016 Rio Olympics, beating them 3-1 within the quarter-finals. In Tokyo, they beat Spain by the identical scoreline of their quarter-final fixture, together with two targets from high scorer Alexander Hendrickx, who performed with a bandage round his head to guard a wound on his brow.Belgium are a well-recognized opponent for India. The two groups performed one another 3 times in 2019 throughout India’s European tour they usually beat Belgium 2-0, 3-1 and 5-1 within the three video games throughout that tour. In one other European tour in March this yr, India beat Belgium 3-2. But going through Belgium in a serious match is a unique problem and so Graham Reid is not going to be these outcomes as a transparent judgement of how good or unhealthy their opponents are.India have discovered area targets recurrently within the 4 consecutive wins they’ve loved since their defeat to Australia. This will turn out to be useful with each Belgium and India boasting among the greatest penalty nook takers on the planet Rupinder Pal Singh and Harmanpreet Singh for India and Hendrickx, Loick Luypaert and Tom Boon for Belgium.After the a lot heralded taking pictures contingent did not medal in Tokyo it was the hockey groups that lifted the gloom for the Indian contingent with a string of constructive outcomes which have taken each the boys’s and girls’s groups to the cusp of Olympic historical past. It was additionally famous by some on social media that the boys’s group had a quite muted celebration after their win within the quarter-final, contemplating the enormity of the event, which indicated that they’ve larger targets than simply setting match milestones.They have lead Belgium 3-2 within the Olympics face to face file however their final win got here all the best way again in 1968, when the game was performed on grass. Belgium have grown from being a fringe group to top-of-the-line on the planet now with expertise of successful titles. India might therefore use among the calmness they confirmed on the finish of the quarter-final in order to ship the nation into a good larger match of euphoria with a beneficial consequence.