Agencies
Paris
For the second Olympics in a row, the Indian men’s hockey team will be contending for bronze after going down to world champions Germany 3-2 in the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Tuesday.
India went ahead through Harmanpreet Singh’s penalty corner (7’) in the first quarter. However, Germany bounced back through Gonzalo Peillat (18’) before Christopher Ruehr (27’) gave them the lead.
India equalized through Sukhjeet Singh (36’) but a Marco Miltkau goal (54’) six minutes before the final hooter prevented India from making an appearance in the Olympics men’s hockey final for the first time since Moscow 1980. India will take on Spain in the bronze medal match. World No. 8 Spain were blanked 4-0 by the Netherlands in their semi-final.
India missed a golden chance with Abhishek failing to hit the target at the 20th-minute mark. Lalit Upadhyay also failed to convert a strong chance just three minutes later.
Miltkau put Germany ahead with six minutes left after beating PR Sreejesh at the near post. India opting to sub off Sreejesh to bring on an extra attacker in search of the equaliser.
Sukhjeet Singh and Shamsher Singh missed crucial chances in the last minute and failed to force the match to a penalty shootout. India previously defeated Great Britain in the quarter-finals in a shootout to make the last four.