Mumbai: In Hockey Olympic Qualifiers, team India beat Russia by 4-2. It was expected to be a ‘David vs Goliath’ contest going by the class and vast gap in world rankings between the two teams but world no. 22 Russia dished out a fighting effort to surprise the hosts and keep the difference of goals to just two.
Harmanpreet Singh’s conversion of a penalty corner in the fifth minute was negated by Andrey Kuraev’s field goal and it wasn’t until the final 15 minutes that India got a cushion with SV Sunil and Mandeep to put India further ahead.
It was expected to be a ‘David vs Goliath’ contest going by the class and vast gap in world rankings between the two teams but world no. 22 Russia dished out a fighting effort to surprise the hosts and keep the difference of goals to just two.
World no.5 India still can’t breath easy as Russia clearly showed they are capable of creating an upset in the second and final match on Saturday. The aggregate winner at the end of the two-match qualifier will seal its place for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
India was on the attack from the very first whistle. After an early save from PR Sreejesh and a close chance by Manpreet, India registered themselves on the scoreboard as the captain won a referral and Harmanpreet converted it into a fifth-minute goal. In the ninth minute, Russia won their first penalty corner but couldn’t capitalise, although they didn’t have to wait long for the equaliser.
Two minutes into the second quarter, Indian defence was caught napping as Kuraev slotted a perfect angle beating Sreejesh for Russia’s first goal of the evening. Russia piled pressure going full throttle towards India’s goal and nearly took a lead before an alert Indian defence prevented it.
While the Indian team was clearly under a bit of pressure put their act together through Mandeep’s first goal, a reverse flick finding the mark as the ball went into the bottom left corner of the net. At the half-time, India was ahead 2-1 and needed some protection, but Russia began making the Indian defence look shaky. India was awarded a penalty corner before Russia referred it successfully as an exciting third quarter came to a close.
In the last 15 minutes, India decided to put the game beyond the conclusion. In the 48th minute, Nilakanta Sharma produced an impressive run, which was finished well by Sunil just outside the net. With 10 minutes to go for the final whistle, Mandeep scored his second goal of the day in the 53rd minute from a counter-attack to make the scoreline 4-1 in favour of the hosts.
Russia scored a vital second goal in the final minute of the match through a penalty corner conversion by Semen Matkovskiy.
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