Belgium scripted history as they progressed to the semi-finals after a gap of 96 years.
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Akashdeep Singh’s 15th minute goal was negated by Sebastien Dockier (34th) and Belgium soon came into their own.
Rio de Janeiro: Indian hockey team’s captain PR Sreejesh has apologised for letting the nation down after his team’s 1-3 loss to Belgium in the quarterfinals at the Rio Olympics. India vs Argentina Hockey match was one such high andreline outing where both the teams gave their best but there has to be one victor and that was India.
But penalty corner specialists Raghunath and Rupinder Pal Singh failed to convert them, as India suffered second loss in four Pool B games.
These couple of quaters were frustrating for India, who nearly camped inside the Canadian half for the better part of the 30 minutes.
In the dying moments, India removed goalkeeper Sreejesh to bring in an extra outfield player and their attack was fruitful, earning them as many as four back-to-back penalty corners. The Argentines will play defending champion Germany, which came from 2-0 down to defeat New Zealand 3-2 in the last five minutes while the Netherlands will face Belgium in the other last four match tomorrow.
India did manage to create a number of chances but couldn’t string together that killer pass to force a breakthrough. SV Sunil cut a lonely furrow even as Ramandeep Singh and Nikkin Thimmaiah were off colour – they were the biggest disappointments of the Rio Olympics. His reverse hit, powerfully struck, went just wide of the post.
Argentina’s Los Leones opened the scoring late in the first quarter thanks to a wonderful penalty corner effort from Gonzalo Peillat, a lead that they held until three minutes from the end when Pau Quemada levelled and put the match on the brink of a shoot-out.
India, on the other hand, have blown hot and cold.
Two minutes into the third quarter, Sreejesh made a brilliant save to deny Thomas Briels but minutes later Belgium equalised when Dockier scored from the top of the circle after dribbling past three Indian defenders.
It didn’t take much time for Jill Witmer to score the fourth goal of the game, but the Cherry Blossoms finally scored in the fourth quarter on a penalty corner attempt when Mie Nakashima sneaked one into the corner of the cage.
That momentum carried through to the final quarter, India dominant in the opening exchanges. The goal certainly propelled the Belgians, who picked themselves up. The ball rose up to a risky height, and in the second attempt, Rupinder’s flick entered the goal after being deflected by the first onrushing defender in the 38th minute.
Tom Boon scored a Belgium’s third in 4th quarter with 10 mins left in the match. They played like a unit as it was reflected in both the field goals.
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India’s best shuttler and World No-5, Saina Nehwal, started the day-9 at Rio with a frightful note by losing to less known Marija Ulitina of Ukraine (World No-61) 18-21, 19-21 in the Group-G match leaving India heart-broken.
