Bhubaneswar: Down to 10 players, India made a memorable comeback and defeated Great Britain in a dramatic 4-2 penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in regular time to enter Men’s Hockey Semifinal at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
India goalkeeper Sreejesh emerged hero in shootout after Amit Rohidas was sent off with 43 minutes to go.
The match took a turn less than 15 minutes into the second quarter as Amit Rohidas, a key defender and India’s first rusher, was shown a red card for a stick on the face of GB’s William Calnan. Right after going down to ten men, India took a 1-0 lead in the game as captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a goal (22nd minute) through a penalty corner, his seventh at Paris 2024. Though Lee Morton equalised for Great Britain five minutes later, they managed to hold the opponent to 1-1 at the end of full time.
Indian defensive prowess was on full display as they survived 21 shots and 24 circle penetrations from Great Britain.
THE SHOOTOUT
Harmanpreet made a 180 turn to convert the goal to the keeper’s left side, bringing the score to 1-1, after Great Britain took the initial lead. Sukhjeet Singh made it 2-2 in the shoot-out after Zach Wallace converted Team Great Britain’s second attempt. The turning point came when Great Britain missed their third shot, while India capitalized, scoring to take a 3-2 lead. Another miss by Great Britain on their fourth attempt sealed their fate, as Rajkumar Pal stepped up and scored for India, clinching a 4-2 victory in the shootout.
India will face the winner of Netherlands versus Argentina quarterfinal.
RED CARD SHOWN TO ROHIDAS
Rohidas was dribbling in the midfield in the second minute of the second quarter when he hit Will Calnan with his stick on the face. Though it can be argued that he didn’t hit Calnan intentionally, unnatural movement of the stick lifted from the ground to the face of the player put the decision against the Olympic bronze medallist.
RED CARD FOR AMIT ROHIDAS IN THE QF ! 🟥
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REACTIONS
India women hockey team captain Rani Rampal found the decision a little too harsh.
Definitely not a red card for Amit rohidas . Yes they can award 10 min yellow card as a punishment .
Ind v/s GB #hockey #QuarterFinals #olympic— Rani Rampal (@imranirampal) August 4, 2024
Game needs less White referees, who have a clear, historic bias against Asian teams(have seen hockey for way too long now) & have more diversity in their referee panel. Asia & particularly India is a big market for hockey, so do not antagonise your biggest market
— Mandar Bhide & 10 others (@sendtomandar) August 4, 2024
Red card for Amit Rohidas will go down as the most brutal decision of this Olympics. There was no way he did that intentionally. I have watched the replay at least 10 times. And I have seen this so many times, Great Britain being supported by erroneous referee decisions. Sick.
— ✨ (@aadhicupchaai) August 4, 2024
HISTORIC WIN
Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey termed it as a historic win. “”It is very difficult to play with only 10 players for 45 minutes… But they played well. They stopped many important shots. We could not attack with only 10 players… All players played in defensive mode…,” he told ANI.
