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Tokyo Olympics: Indian women's hockey coach says pressure will be on Australia in quarter-final

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Aug 01, 2021, 05:30 PM IST
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Photograph:(ANI)

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Ahead of the match, coach Marijne opened about the crucial match and said that the focus is to "keep improving" with every match and stay in a "good rhythm" for the next one. 

Sjoerd Marijne, the coach of the Indian women's hockey team believes that the pressure will be on Australia in the quarter-final clash at Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Rani Rampal-led team will take on the Pool B toppers Australia in their maiden quarter-final appearance at Olympics Games on Monday (August 2). 

Ahead of the match, coach Marijne opened about the crucial match and said that the focus is to "keep improving" with every match and stay in a "good rhythm" for the next one. 

"The pressure will be on Australia as they are one of the highest-ranked teams in the competition. We will be able to play freely, which is very important for us," Sjoerd Marijne said. 

"Our own focus is on approaching each game one at a time and to keep improving with every match. We have a training session today to stay in good rhythm ahead of the game, and then tomorrow we will take the field and try to express ourselves there," he added. 

"We have to keep playing our game, like we did in the group stage. We won our last two matches because we learnt from the mistakes we made early on and made improvements accordingly. 

After rather a disappointing start in the Olympics campaign, as they began with losses against the Netherlands (5-1), Germany (2-0) and Great Britain 4-1), India then picked up the momentum and defeat Ireland (1-0) and South Africa (4-3) in back-to-back clashes in Pool A. After that Great Britain crushed Ireland 2-0 in their last Group A clash that helped India to enter the quarter-finals. 

Now the next opposition for India is not an easy one, as they will face a fierce side Australia, who boasts the best defensive record thus far in the Olympics, having conceded just one goal in the entire group stage and picking up an impressive 15 points out 15. 

"We have been creating a lot of chances throughout the competition, but our conversion of those chances has not been up to the mark. We need to get better in that department, while also giving away fewer chances to the opposition," the coach further added. 

(with inputs from agencies)