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Hockey World Cup: India need to win by a big margin to make a direct place in the quarter-finals

Bhubaneswar. India, who played out a goalless draw in the previous match, will aim to register a straight quarter-final berth when they take on Wales in the last pool match of the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup on Thursday. India and England have four points from two matches with one win and one draw but England are ahead on goal average. England’s goal average is plus five while India’s is plus two. The advantage for India will be that before the match, they will know by how many goals they have to win because England and Spain match before that. If England lose or draw, then India’s work will be done only with a win and they will be on top of Pool D. With this, he will directly reach the quarter finals from ‘Group of Death’.

If England beat Spain, then India will have to win by a margin of at least five goals. This figure will increase according to the margin of victory of England. If both the teams have equal number of goals and equal number of wins, then the ranking in the pool stage will be decided on the basis of goal average. Even if India finishes second, it will not be out of the tournament. In such a situation, they will have to play a crossover with the third placed team of Pool C, which can be New Zealand or Malaysia. India beat Spain 2. After losing 0 to England played a goalless draw. After playing two matches at Rourkela’s Birsa Munda Stadium, the team will now play its first match of this World Cup at Kalinga Stadium. The top teams from each of the four pools will advance directly to the quarter-finals while the second and third placed teams will play crossover matches.

The second place team from one pool will play the third place team from the other pool and the winning team will play the top team of the pool in the quarter-finals. If India qualify directly by topping Pool D, they will have one match less to play and will be a fresh team in the last eight. Midfielder and former captain Manpreet Singh said, “If we finish top of the pool, we will play one less match which will be good. We will try to execute the strategy by showing our best game. ”””’ The cause of concern for India is penalty corners. The Indian team has not been able to score directly from the nine penalty corners received so far. Amit Rohidas scored against Spain but it was off a rebound after Harmanpreet Singh’s drag-flick failed.

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Drag-flickers and poor form of skipper Harmanpreet, who could not even score a penalty stroke against Spain, remain a cause for concern for India. India will also have to capitalize on field goal opportunities.Head coach Graham Reid said, “We have to avoid missing opportunities. We have to win against Wales by a huge margin.” Ahead of the match, India suffered a setback as midfielder Hardik Singh will not be able to play the match due to injury. He will be fit only till the crossover or quarter-finals. Vivek Sagar Prasad will play in his place. On the other hand, having lost both the matches, the Wales team is out of the tournament and will play for prestige only.

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