PANAJI: The Indian women’s hockey team will take inspiration from the men’s playoff victory over Germany, when Rani Rampal-led side clashes with World Number 4 Great Britain in the bronze medal match at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Friday at 0700 hours IST.
The Indian women’s team had played their hearts out against the Argentinians, but went down 1-2 in their first-ever Olympic semi-final on Wednesday. However, the men’s team’s historic feat of ending the 41-year-old medal drought today would have provided added energy to the women’s team to recover and come out charging in the pursuit of their first-ever Olympic bronze medal.
Indian women’s team chief coach Sjoerd Marijne shared his thoughts ahead of the momentous clash for women’s sport in the country.
“We were really competitive against Argentina. It was about converting the small opportunities and we converted a Penalty Corner into a goal. We were very close so the loss is hurting the team very much, but now it’s about recovery and looking forward to the next match. We can still win a medal. I am proud of the way the girls performed against Argentina. They played an Olympic Semi-Final for the first time and it’s not easy. We played with the right spirit and I am very happy with that,” said the Dutchman.
Inspirational captain Rani said: “We played really well against Argentina, however, it was disappointing not to book a place in the Olympic Final. We have performed really well in this tournament and we still have a chance to win a medal. We are confident about our individual games and we will give everything we have to win our first Olympic Medal. We have a chance to make history on Friday,” said Rani.
“It’ll be all about staying in the moment for us. We have to follow our processes and if we execute our plans properly, we will be able to get a good result in the Bronze Medal match. We defeated Great Britain in our last encounter against them in February 2020 so we will take a lot of confidence from that match,” said the 26-year-old forward from Haryana.
