The Indian men's hockey team bounced back from a 4-1 loss on Tuesday against world champions Germany with a controlled 1-0 victory, thanks to an early goal from Gurjant Singh. The result pushes India up to sixth in the FIH Pro League standings, with six points from four games, while Germany remain fifth.
Despite the 1-4 humbling in the previous game, India coach Craig Fulton was positive ahead of the game, claiming it was a good performance with a few poor moments in the final quarter. He restored Harmanpreet Singh and Hardik Singh to his lineup, although the Indian captain, with a bandaged hand, looked some way from 100%.
However, India did begin with plenty of aggression, as predicted by Germany coach Henning Andre in his pre-match utterances. It paid immediate dividends for India as they opened the scoring in the 4th minute itself. Rajinder Singh, who was a constant threat for India down the right wing, saw his low drive in the circle saved by German keeper Alexander Stadler, but the ball rebounded into danger, where Gurjant was on hand to score an opportunistic goal with a clever finish from close range.
India were content to sit back and threaten on the counter thereafter, with Shilanand Lakra twice drawing saves from Stadler in the first half. India's problems with penalty corners continued just before the break, with plenty of missed traps and poor injections, before Harmanpreet finally connected with a dragflick, but sent it wide. It proved to be a problem later in the game as well with another missed PC, taking India's tally to 14 PCs taken in four games without a single conversion.
The PC conversion plague appeared to have infected Germany as well, with Gonzalo Pelliat's numerous strikes being saved by Suraj Karkera and Krishan Pathan in the second half. Sukhjeet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad similarly drew excellent saves from Stadler as the third quarter came to an end, as the match remained finely poised going into the final 15 minutes.
The Germans remained a threat, but the Indian defence held firm, right until the very end - where they conceded a spate of PCs. There was a slight controversy at the death as Germany tapped a high ball into the goal, but the video referee ruled in the on-field umpire's favour, who had blown his whistle before Moritz Ludwig had 'scored' for a dangerous ball. India held on from the resulting PC as the hooter blew soon after, thus confirming a much-needed win and three points.
India next face Ireland at 7:30 PM on February 21, 2025.
You can relive the match, as it happened, in our live blog, below: