After the loss against Belgium, the Indian men’s hockey team will look put out a better performance against Argentina in their FIH Pro League match at Rourkela’s Birsa Munda Stadium on Thursday.
India lost their opening match of their Pro League campaign against Belgium 1-3 on Wednesday. Nelson Onana, Thomas Crols and Arno Van Dessel were on the scoresheet for Belgium while Shilanand Lakra scored the only goal for India.
Harmanpreet Singh and his team competed well in the first quarters with the score being 1-1. It was in the final 15 minutes that Belgium’s attacking prowess made it count with two superb finishes.
India’s defence was impressive for most of the game against Belgium, however head coach Craig Fulton would want to create more chances against Argentina.
Captain Harmanpreet will also want to do better on Thursday as he was not at his best against the Belgians. His wayward pass led to the opening goal for the visitors while he failed to convert his chances from penalty corners. The most impressive player on the India for India was Shilanand Lakra. His work rate was outstanding while he also created the penalty corner chance from which he scored the goal.
Belgium’s win has pushed them to the top of the table. They won five out of the six they played and haven’t lost any games so far. Meanwhile, Argentina have won three games out of the five they played this season. They have already played one game in Rourkela against Belgium on Tuesday, which they lost 3-5.
For India, forward Tomos Domene from Argentina is the one to watch out for. He has scored six goals in the season so far, only second to Belgium’s Tom Boon who has seven goals to his name.
The match will start at 7:30 PM IST.
You can follow the match on our blog below:
