Wavre , Captain Harmanpreet Singh’s last-gasp penalty-corner strike took the match into a shoot-out but India finished eighth at the FIH World Cup after losing 3-4 to co-hosts Belgium here on Friday.
India’s Hopes Dashed in Knockout Rounds
In the second round of the tournament, India faced a challenging match against the Netherlands, conceding three goals in the last 19 minutes, resulting in a 1-3 defeat. This loss was compounded by Argentina’s victory over India, with a final score of 5-3, effectively eliminating India’s chances of reaching the semi-finals.
2 Belgium were leading 3-2 until the final minute when India earned a penalty corner with just 26 seconds left on the clock. Harmanpreet made no mistake in converting it to force a shoot-out after the two sides were locked 3-3 in regulation time. World No. It was Harmanpreet’s eighth goal of the tournament. Tom Boon, Arthur de Sloover, Alexander Hendrickx and Roman Duvekot scored for Belgium, while Victor Fourbert missed the target. Abhishek had opened the scoring for India before Harmanpreet struck twice, while Duvekot, Hugo Labouchere and Nicolas de Kerpel scored in regulation time for Belgium. Abhishek put India ahead in the sixth minute, finding the net after his shot from inside the circle took a deflection off a Belgian defender’s stick. Belgium thought they had regained the lead shortly afterwards when Hendrickx found the net from a penalty corner, but India successfully referred the decision and the goal was disallowed.
