Hockey India League 2024/25: Soorma Hockey Club & Tamil Nadu Dragons Seal Semi-Final Berths Despite Mixed Results

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Tamil Nadu Dragons and Soorma Hockey Club booked the semi-final spots after earning draws in their respective final league phase matches of the Hockey India League 2024/25 on Wednesday (January 29) at Rourkela's Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium.

Soorma Hockey Club edged table-toppers Rarh Bengal Warriors in a penalty shootout to finish second on the HIL points table, while Tamil Nadu Dragons went down in the shootout against UP Rudras, who settled for a fifth place finish.

JSW Soorma Hockey Club advanced to the Semi Finals of the Men's HIL with a 1 - 1 (3 - 0 SO) penalty shootout victory against Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers in their last Pool stage match. Gurjant Singh (10') gave Soorma the lead early in the game while Jugraj Singh (56') equalised for the Tigers towards the end of the game.

JSW Soorma Hockey Club's Harmanpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad and Victor Wegnez found the back of the net in the penalty shootouts while Vincent Vanasch made three saves to secure the bonus point from the game.

In the second match of the final league phase day, Tamil Nadu Dragons came back from two goals down to secure a draw against the UP Rudras. In the process, the Tamil Nadu Dragons secured their place in the semifinals at the UP Rudras' expense.

Sudeep Chrimako (8) and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (15) scored for the UP Rudras while Jip Janssen (32) and Thomas Sorsby (53) scored for the Tamil Nadu Dragons. The UP Rudras won the penalty shootout 3-2 on sudden death to secure the bonus point, as stated in a release from HIL.

It was a clash between the fourth and fifth-placed teams for the final place in the semi-finals. The Tamil Nadu Dragons were fourth with 17 points with the UP Rudras fifth with 15 points. While a draw would have been enough to take the Dragons into the semifinals, the Rudras had to win outright to finish in the top four.