Bhubaneswar: The defending champions India are set to clash with Belgium in the quarter-final of the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup here at the Kalinga stadium on December 1. After losing their opening game against France, India impressed with two back-to-back victories over Canada and Poland in their Pool B to secure a berth in the last eight.
While India lost a closely contested match against France by 4-5, the hosts bounced back to demolish Canada by 13-1 and outclass Poland by 8-2. On the eve of the knockout encounter, India chief coach Graham Reid stated that the team’s real fight will be against Belgium. “I feel the team has been learning from each match they have played so far and have gotten better with each day. In the last two games, particularly, we have started doing what we aim to do. But the real test begins tomorrow against Belgium.
“One of our goals for tomorrow’s match will be to have a good start. The boys are upbeat. Hopefully, all the nerves would have been washed away in the last couple of games. I am more focused on making sure we are tight in defence at every moment in the game,” Reid said while talking about India’s strategy for the match.
Reid further stated that penalty corners may prove to be a crucial factor that may determine the result. “We have been spending a fair bit of time practicing penalty corner attack and defence as it may decide the match tomorrow for both the teams. We are studying what Belgium are doing in the past couple of days.
“We are also playing well through midfield and we need to continue doing that. We have started to get penetration and we are creating opportunities. The team that can comes out and play their natural game tomorrow will be the winner.”
On the other hand, Belgium remained unbeaten in their Pool A, having won against South Africa (5-1) and Chile (3-0), and drawn one with Malaysia (1-1) in the group stage.
Belgium head coach Jeroen Baart said that both India and Belgium have a complimentary style of play.
“Our style of play is very complimentary to India. India like to counter-attack using their speed and vertical play. They do it really well. We focus on our defensive end and on controlling the ball to create opportunities. “It will be a fantastic match-up. We expect a lot of attacking and aggression from the Indian team. We need to have the right structure and right intensity at the right moment. The best team will go through,” Baart said.
The match begins at 7:30 pm IST.
