 "FIH Pro League 2024-25: India beat Spain 2-0 despite captain Harmanpreet Singh's absence")
Bhubaneswar: The Indian men’s hockey team made a brilliant comeback to beat Spain 2-0 in a return leg match of the FIH Pro League here on Sunday.
India lost to Spain 1-3 in their first-leg match on Saturday despite taking the lead through Sukhjeet Singh’s goal.
On Sunday, however, it was a completely different-looking Indian side as they dominated for most part of the match and scored two field goals through Mandeep Singh (32nd minute) and Dilpreet Singh (39th) to pocket all the three points.
The Indian men will next play Germany here on Tuesday.
It was India who enjoyed the better share of ball possession and they created more chances in the first two quarters but failed to convert those into goals.
In the fifth minute, Mandeep had a golden opportunity to score but the Spanish keeper Rafael Revilla made a solid save to deny the Indian striker. Seconds from the end of the first quarter, India earned back-to-back penalty corners, but Jugraj Singh could not make them count.
On the other end, India custodian Krishan Bahadur Pathak made a fine save to deny Spain their first shot on goal in the 14th minute.
India dominated possession and pressed hard in the first two quarters, but failed to breach a resolute Spainish defence. Both the teams failed to break the deadlock in the first half.
Two minutes after the change of ends, India secured another penalty corner but Spanish goalkeeper Revilla made double save to deny Jugraj.
But from the resultant free hit, Mandeep neatly deflected in Dilpreet’s pass from close range to hand India the lead.
Seven minutes later, Dilpreet scored his 32nd goal for India with a brilliant deflection after being set up by Mandeep and Gurjant Singh.
In the 43rd minute, Spain earned a penalty corner but their drag-flicker Pepe Cunill missed the target.
India also got a penalty corner soon after but Jugraj misfired again. Trailing by two goals, Spain pressed on the accelerator and earned a couple of penalty corners in the final quarter but the Indian defence stood tall even in the absence of skipper Harmanpreet Singh, who was rested for the game.
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