Indian men look to continue winning momentum against Germany in FIH Pro League
After a shaky start to their FIH Pro League Campaign, India will aim to maintain their newfound momentum when they face Olympic silver medalists Germany on Tuesday.
The hosts suffered a disappointing loss to Spain in their opening match but bounced back strongly with a 2-0 victory on Sunday. With three points from two matches, India currently sits eighth in the standing and the players are eager to improve their position with a win over Germany.
In their previous game, India dominated large portions of play and secured victory with field goals from Mandeep Singh (32nd minute) and Dilpreet Singh (39th). However, chief coach Craig Fulton may still have concerns over India’s penalty corner conversions rate. Despite earning seven penalty corners in two matches, the team failed to convert any, an area they will need to improve against Germany. With captain Harmanpreet Singh resting in the last match, Jugraj Singh struggled to make an impact from the set-pieces.
The forward trio of Dilpreet, Mandeep and Sukhjeet Singh have all opened their accounts in the tournament and hope to add more goals against Germany. In defense, India displayed a much-improved performance in the second match managing to absorb pressure from the Spanish strikers and keeping a clean sheet. Germany, who will be playing their first match against India in this Pro League, sit just above India in the seventh place with four points from four games. Despite only winning one match so far, their attack has been led by Raphael Hartkopf, Gonzalo Peillat, and Thies Prinz, all of whom have scored twice.
Looking ahead to the upcoming matches, captain Harmanpreet said, "We are looking forward to our games against Germany. They are a quality team, and we know we need to bring our best performance to the field. After the positive result against Spain, our confidence is high, but we know there's still work to be done. One of our main focuses is improving our penalty corner conversion, as it's crucial to make the most of those opportunities in tight matches."
"The team is motivated and ready to build on the momentum from our last game. We've learned from both the matches, and we're determined to bring our best performance to the field," he added.
