The New Zealand Women have been confirmed to meet trans-Tasman rivals Australia in the quarter finals at the Rio Olympic Games.
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Rio de Janeiro: The Indian women’s hockey team suffered a humiliating 0-5 loss against higher-ranked Argentina in their final Pool B fixture to end their campaign at the Rio Olympics here on Saturday. We didn’t bring in the quality that we brought in London (at the Champions Trophy in June). The Black Sticks finished in second place in Pool A while Australia is coming in from a third-place finish in Pool B. The Hockeyroos took two hard losses in pool play from the United States and Great Britain, but picked up three key wins along the way. There will be no classification matches for the teams positioned fifth and sixth in the group.
The Quarter-Final matches will all take place on Monday 15th August, with New Zealand playing Australia at 10:00 Brasilia Time (GMT / UTC -3) before U.S. and Germany take to the field at 12:30.
Hockey, Indian national sport that produced some Golds in Olympics in good old days, too didn’t prove to be lucky enough for India.
In the other last eight match, Argentina saw off a stiff competition from Spain with a 2-1 victory. Open play efforts from Xan de Waard and Kitty van Male did the damage as Oranje ended Pool A at the top of the standings having claimed 13 of the 15 points available.
With just 2 minutes to go, Belgium nearly scored the opening goal of the match but Indian goalkeeper Sreejesh had other ideas. India had a chance nearly immediately, Lilima Minz from their first penalty corner drawing a save from Belen Succi in Argentina’s goal. India’s defence showed that they meant business as the Belgian attacks were broken down at will.
India won against Ireland (3-2) and Argentina (2-1) but lost two close encounters against reigning Olympic champions Germany (1-2) and silver medallist Netherlands (1-2) before they were held to a 2-2 draw by minnows Canada in their last preliminary encounter.
Martina Cavallero (16th and 29th minutes), Maria Granatto (23rd), Carla Rebecchi (26th) and Agustina Albertarrio (27th) scored for the world No.2 side.
“The game can change till the last moment in hockey, so it’s more important till the end how we concentrate and try to get a lead”.
India took the lead in first quarter but failed to win the match.
Taking a look at the matchups of the men’s field hockey quarterfinal round in Rio.
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The womens quarter final matches all take place on Tuesday 16th August (NZ time), with New Zealand playing Australia at 1:00am, live on SKY Sport 3 before U.S. and Germany take to the field at 3:30am.
