The Indian men's hockey team will look to bounce back from their loss against the Netherlands when they take on the same opponents in the FIH Pro League on Monday.
On Saturday, India started the match on a positive note with a fit Harmanpreet Singh scoring a brilliant dragflick to open the scoring. However, the Dutch side made a strong comeback and ultimately emerged victorious courtesy of a brace from Thijs van Dam, which included a late winning goal in the 58th minute.
With seven games left to play in the competition, India currently ranked fourth in the table with 15 points. With the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 spot up for grabs, India will aim to do well in the remaining matches and gain maximum points against strong opponents.
Reflecting on the team's performance, the Indian team's head coach Craig Fulton said, "We did well in the first half, but the third quarter wasn't as good. In the fourth quarter we did well again and were winning the ball, but we weren't getting any shots on goal. It was unfortunate to lose like that because I thought we could push for a draw."
He added, "We want to push ourselves as hard as we can, especially against a team like the Netherlands. It was close and we had our chances, so we just need to keep pushing on. We've got seven more games, so there's a long way to go. We'll have to look at the match recording, have a debrief with the boys, get their opinion on what we tried to do and then see where we can make improvements."
The match will start at 6 PM IST.
Catch all the action from the match on our blog, below: