rotterdam18 june. It was a memorable evening for star forward Manpreet Singh as he not only created a new Indian record by playing his 413th match for his country but also helped his team get their first win of the FIH Pro League season.
India defeated current world champion Germany 3-1 in this match played at HC Rotterdam. For India, Mandeep Singh (seventh minute), Shilanand Lakra (13th minute) and Neelkant Sharma (35th minute) scored one goal each, while for Germany, the only goal was scored by Raphael Hartkopf (45th minute). Interestingly, the Indian team could not earn a single short corner during the entire match. Whereas Germany won three penalty corners, but did not succeed in even one.
India’s first win in 10 matches during the current season
It is noteworthy that this season has been very bad for India and this was its first win in the 10 matches played so far among nine teams and it is just one place above the laggard Pakistan in the table i.e. at ninth position. During this period, it has faced defeat in six matches and three matches have been drawn.
India had a 2-0 lead till half-time.
Talking about the match, the Indian team made a great start and maintained pressure from the beginning. The first success came when the ball touched Tom Grambush’s stick in the middle of the circle and reached Mandeep Singh, who made no mistake in scoring the goal. Six minutes later, the lead was doubled when captain Harmanpreet Singh hit a powerful shot in the circle and the ball bounced off the stick of a German defender, on which Shilanand Lakra pounced and scored. Germany struggled to create chances and missed their first penalty corner of the match just five minutes before half-time.
Neelkant took the lead 3-0 in the third quarter
India took advantage of another big defensive mistake by Germany in the fifth minute of the third quarter when Neelkant Sharma moved forward in the circle and beat the goalkeeper to make the score 3-0. When only 20 seconds were left for the quarter to end, Germany got its first success. Tom Grambusch passed the ball into the circle and Raphael Hartkopf was in the right spot, closing the gap with a backhand deflection into the net.
In the final quarter, Germany withdrew their goalkeeper three minutes before the end of the game and had a chance to score a goal, but Hartkopf’s shot went over the crossbar. The Germans got their last penalty corner in the final moments of the game, but the Indian defence, which had looked excellent throughout the match, once again stood firm.
to Hardik Singh ‘player of the match‘ award of
India’s Hardik Singh received the ‘Player of the Match’ award. He said, ‘I think the team played very well. All 18 players were in excellent form. We knew what we were doing and our structure was very good. We also knew that we had to finish strong and we did just that… Manpreet is a legend. He is an inspiration for all of us. Salute to him.
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