Tokyo Olympics: India hope to bounce back with a bronze medal

Tokyo - India will face Germany in the bronze medal match on Thursday

Indian men's hockey team captain Manpreet Singh and star custodian P R Sreejesh said the side has no time to dwell on the heartbreaking 5-2 defeat to Belgium in the semifinals at the Tokyo Games.

India will face Germany, which lost to Australia 3-1 in the other semifinal, in the bronze medal playoff on Thursday.

Meanwhile, India will take on Argentina in the women’s semifinal on Wednesday, having stunned Australia in the quarterfinals.

The men’s team fell short against world champions Belgium, losing 5-2 in the semifinals on Tuesday.

"It is really hard for me right now because we came with a winning mindset, but unfortunately we didn't win the match. Now we need to focus on our next bronze-medal match and we need to work and we need to get the medal," Manpreet said after the loss.

"It's a great honour for us to reach the semifinal after a long time, but now I think we need to focus because the next match is going to be really important for us. At least we should win a bronze medal for the nation," he added.

The skipper said having toiled hard for the last five years to reach this level, India deserved a better result on Tuesday.

"It's always been hard work and togetherness. This team has been together for the last four or five years. We have worked really hard to be reaching this level. We deserve better, and unfortunately, we couldn't get it today."

Sreejesh agreed with his skipper and said the team needs to focus on returning home with a medal.

"Disappointed, but you don't have time to worry about that. You need to forget about that and think about the future. Now we still have a chance to win a medal and that's more important for us than crying at this time," he said.

"It's more important for us to think about the future, watch the match, think about where we lost, where we committed the mistakes, rectify that, and move on," he added.

Senior India defender Rupinder Pal Singh to feels that all is not lost in the ongoing Games for them.

"Of course, it's heartbreaking for us, reaching the semifinal after 41 years and we were here to win a gold medal. That was our aim, but we lost today. The great thing is we have a chance to finish third in the next game so we will focus on that," he said.