Paris Olympics 2024: The ‘deciding’ 54th-minute German brilliance crashes India's 'Gold Medal' dream in Hockey

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬: Tuesday night happened to end in heartbreak for 1.4 billion Indian fans as their dream of a ‘hockey final’ in the Olympics for the first time since 1980 crashed out by Germany. The Harmanpreet-led Indian team were coming off with an unbeaten run in their current campaign in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. 

Unfortunately, it was not their day against Germany in the semi-final at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium and their ‘journey to an Olympic gold’ in hockey ended in an unfortunate turnaround of events.  Things went against India in the last six minutes of the game when the German attack went on to penetrate the Indian defence with an aggressive mindset. 

However, the men in blue completely dominated the first quarter as they started with a brilliant attacking approach, earning a PC [penalty corner] just in the second minute of the game. Harmanpreet Singh’s boys continued outplaying Germany throughout the first quarter, keeping them away from the 23-m circle for almost the entire 15 minutes except for a ‘missed shot’ by Marco Miltkau in the 4th minute of the game.

The sheer Indian dominance in the first quarter was clear by the fact that they earned a total of 10 penalty corners and that too in the first 10 minutes of the game. Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh capitalized on this dominance and successfully executed the sixth penalty corner into a success to take the lead 1-0 in India’s favour.

India clear the books after losing the second quarter

However, the Germans didn’t hold it for too long and they came back strongly in the second quarter. Gonzalo Peillat scored a brilliant equalizer in the 18th minute of the game and only in the third minute of the second quarter to level the scoreline by 1-1. Later, Germany got another easy chance in a ‘penalty stroke’ and Christopher Ruehr didn’t make any mistake to convert it into a goal. The scorecard after the second quarter ended up 2-1 in Germany’s favour.

India again got their hold back at the beginning of the third quarter, earning a penalty corner just in the 31st minute of the game followed by a re-penalty corner. The men in blue successfully executed this dominance into a goal in the 36th minute of the match when Sukhjeet Singh successfully pushed the ball into the goalpost.

The third quarter of the game ended with a scoreline of 2-2 without any damage in the Indian circle.

Germany turn the tables in the fourth quarter

Speaking of the fourth quarter, it was the time when the Honamas started dominating Harmanpreet Singh’s men after two successful executions earlier in the second quarter. Eventually, the Indian defence happened to feel the heat of this pressure which resulted in conceding a goal in the 54th minute of the game.

German forward Marco Miltkau made no mistake in executing an outstanding field goal to take the scoreline 3-2 in Germany’s favour.

Later around the end of the match in the last 2 minutes, India decided to play without their goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, and added an extra outfield player. The Tokyo 2020 Bronze medalists made a chance in the German D but failed to execute it in the 59th minute followed by another ‘missed shot’ in the last shot of the match.

With this win, Germany have now advanced to the final of the men’s hockey competition in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. They will face the Netherlands in the Gold Medal match. On the other hand, India will face Spain in the Bronze medal match. Both the ‘medal games’ will be played on Thursday, August 8.