Bhubaneswar : , November 27, 2017 – With his boys improving in defence after their defeat to France, India coach Graham Reid expressed confidence that they would be able beat top contenders Belgium in Saturday’s quarter-final match at the FIH ODH Hockey Men’s Junior Cup here on December 1. Reid stated that he was happy with how his boys played in the 8-2 defeat of Poland in Saturday’s preliminary league match.
“I was quite happy, to be truthful.We started well which was the plan, which was to put some scoreboard pressure upon them which was good.
And we did the same in half-time that also helps.Our defence and press were a little better than in previous days.He said that there were many opportunities tonight and that it was difficult to take advantage of so many opportunities.”
Reid spoke out about the crucial knockout encounter against Belgium.India won Pool A with seven points, while Belgium finished second with six.France (9).Reid stated that they will use the next three days of the tournament to study their game and those of their opponents in order to create a plan to take it to the European giants.This clash will be the same as the final of the 2016 Junior Hockey World Cup at Lucknow, where the hosts defeated Belgium to win their second title in the U-21 category.
Reid said, “We now have 3 days and I was talking with the group that we have 3 days.We will prepare and do well.” We will review all the videos and analyze our game.We came out last night as a group to see them play against Malaysia.
We (the players) were able to see them play and were very confident that we could win.
Skipper Vivek Sagarprasad stated that they will not get too many cards against Belgium, which helped Poland take the initiative in the fourth quarter.They also scored two goals.
He stated that they will do their best against Belgium in quarter-finals.
“Belgium are a very strong team and we will do our best to beat them.” He said that we will analyze their games and plan our game.”
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