LIVE Hockey World Cup | QF: India vs Netherlands

LIVE Hockey World Cup | QF: India vs Netherlands

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India and Netherlands are all set to take on each other in the quarter-final match of the Men’s Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar. India topped the Pool C to get a direct entry into the quarters while the Dutch team won the cross-over game against Canada to make it to the top eight of the tourney.

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The home team will go on to the turf with an aim of making it to the semi-finals after a long gap of 43 years and the crowd at the Kalinga Stadium will act as the 12th man for  the Manpreet Singh-led side. Harendra Singh must be very hopeful that his boys can the turn the tables around this time and the local crowd of Bhubaneswar will want a spectacular penalty corner conversion by Amit Rohidas or some magical defensive skill by Amit Rohidas. Senior players like Kothajit Singh, Chinglensana Singh will look to take up more responsibility to provide the much-needed stability for the home team which had two big wins against South Africa and Canada and a tie against European super power Belgium in Pool C. Akashdeep Singh’s new role as a play maker has been the major change in Harendra’s strategy in the world Cup while India will want their drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh to get the penalty-corner conversions accurate. 

The three-time champions Netherlands have never lost a World Cup game against India and they have an upper edge as far as the past history goes but when the two teams will come for the game then the past records will hardly matter for both the sides. Netherlands are ahead by one position in FIH rankings where India is placed at the fourth position. The team under Billy Bakker has done well in the tournament starting with a huge 7-0 win against Malaysia but they lost to their continental rivals 4-1 before winning against Pakistan by 5-1 goals. In the cross-over game, they managed to get the better of Canada by 5-0 goals to set up the date with the hosts.

In last five years, India and Netherlands have played nine matches against each other and there is nothing to choose between the two sides as both have won four games each while one game has ended in a draw which was their last meeting in the Champions Trophy earlier this year in Netherlands. So, the hockey loving fans in India, Netherlands and all around the globe will hope to see some breathtaking action on the turf in this Thursday evening. 

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