PANAJI: The Indian women’s hockey team put up a fantastic display of skill and tenacity during their 1-0 victory over Australia in the quarter-final of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Monday. Riding a wave of confidence and self-belief after that momentous victory, the Indian girls have now firmly set their sights on the all-important semi-final encounter against Argentina on Wednesday.
Much like the Indian team, Argentina have also gone from strength to strength in the competition, securing a semi-final berth after a convincing 3-0 victory against Germany.
Nevertheless, the Indian team led by Rani, will count on their recent experience of playing against the Argentinians when they were on an extensive tour of the South American country, in January 2021.
Speaking ahead of the semi-final encounter, India captain Rani said: “We were extremely happy with our team performance against Australia, who are a world class hockey team. However, there is not much time to look back, and our focus is fully on the semi-final against Argentina. At this stage of the competition, matches do not get any easier, and we are going to give everything we have on the field.”
Rani alluded to the Indian women’s hockey team’s recent tour of Argentina as one of the factors that could play a role heading into the match. She said: “Both teams will be relatively familiar with each other’s style of play as we faced each other in a few matches earlier in the year. Having said that, an Olympic semi-final is a completely different equation, and no tour game can recreate the same kind of intensity and atmosphere. This is surely the toughest test that our team will face. We are feeling confident about our games and have the necessary self-belief to put our best foot forward.”
Indian women’s hockey team chief coach Sjoerd Marijne expressed that the girls will be focussing on the task and staying in the moment in their semi-final match.
“It will be a difficult match for us, I think Argentina is a good team. We played them in January and we know that Argentina is a hard team to beat. Their defence is very strong. We have to convert our goal-scoring opportunities like we converted the penalty corner against Australia. It’s all about focussing on the task and staying in the moment and being busy with what we have to do well ourselves. I have told all the girls again that it’s about putting all the energy you have in the match.”
India will take on Argentina at the Oi Hockey Stadium in Tokyo on Wednesday, 4 August 2021 at 15:30 hours IST / 19:00 hours JST.
