India is yet to score a field goal in Paris Olympics 2024.
Paris Olympics 2024, India vs Ireland Hockey: Just like a Sarpanch is known to lead the locality, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh, who is prominently known as Sarpanch Sahab, nailed two crucial goals to mark victory against Ireland in the third march of its group stage at Paris Olympics 2024.
While India remained unbeaten in the Paris Olympics 2024, the country also grabbed a new achievement as, for the first time, India scored a first goal in the match, in this edition. Besides, the first goal was also India's first-ever goal in the first quarter.
The best part for India was the early lead given by Harmanpreet Singh as he converted a penalty stroke early in the match. On the other hand, India did not give away any penalty corner in the first 2 quarters which shows the strength of India's defense in this match. Later, India's 'Sarpanch Sahab' Harmanpreet Singh did what he does best — converted another penalty corner to give India a much-needed lead in the match.
However, after this, Ireland won 7 penalty corners in the third quarter but could not convert even one of them into goal. Later in the 4th quarter both the teams saw an even contest but Ireland could not convert the score 2-0.
After beating New Zealand 3-2 and ending the match against Argentina in a draw 1-1, India turned out to be a dominant side right from the beginning to the end of the game against Ireland.
Earlier, India was lacking aggression as the mid-field and flank attacks were not up to the mark. However, in a match against Ireland, Manpreet Singh showed his experience while Hardik Singh gave full support to him. Likewise, India has worked a lot on its long passes which were only a few against New Zealand and Argentina.
Now that India has beaten Ireland in the group stage of the Paris Olympics 2024, the way forward is not going to be easy as the Men in Blue are going to face the two biggies of the Group — Belgium and Australia.
It may be recalled that it was Belgium who crushed India's dream to enter the finals of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 as India was beaten 5-4 in the semifinal match. Even though India won the historic bronze medal after 41 years in the Olympics, Harmanpreet Singh-led Team India would eye revenge on Belgium.
