India vs Germany Hockey: Men in Blue suffer agonizing defeat, to play Spain in Bronze medal clash

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The Indian hockey team suffered an agonizing defeat at the hands of Germany in the semifinal of the Olympics 2024 on Tuesday (August 6).

Despite a valiant effort, Harmanpreet Singh and his troops fell to a 2-3 defeat against the Germans.

India vs Germany Hockey Semifinal - As it Happened

India made a scintillating start to the first quarter. Their constant pressure yielded multiple penalty corners and Germany were in tatters. The elusive opening goal came through captain Harmanpreet Singh, whose deflected strike beat the Germany keeper and gave India the lead. The Men in Blue kept their lead intact and ended the quarter with a solitary goal lead.

In the 2nd quarter, Germany came back strongly. From their first penalty corner, it was Gonzalo Peillat who restored parity in the match. Despite creating chances, India failed to score one as Lalit Upadhyay squandered a glorious opportunity. Then the Germans took the lead from a penalty stroke. Christopher Ruehr beat Sreejesh from the spot and men in Blue headed to the break trailing.

In the third quarter, India roared back with a goal and it was captain Harmanpreet Singh again with a goal. The teams went into the final quarter with parity, and Germany were denied early in the half from a penalty corner. Sreejesh made a save and then Sanjay's amazing goal-line block denied the Germans from taking the lead.

But the German team got the decisive goal in the 54th minute through Marco Miltkau, whose deflected stick shot went in past Sreejesh. India still had a glorious opportunity but Shamsher Singh hit his strike just over in the final second of the match.

Aftermath

After the defeat, India will now play for the Bronze medal against Spain. On the other hand, Germany has advanced to the final against the Netherlands.