"India Should Win Hockey Gold In Olympics": Pakistan Legend

Pakistan hockey legend Hassan Sardar is mighty impressed with India's performance at the Paris Olympics, saying the Harmanpreet Singh-led side has the firepower and potential to win the gold medal at the ongoing Games after a hiatus of 44 years. India will play Germany in the semifinal of the men's hockey on Tuesday in Paris after outplaying Britain in the shoot-out on Sunday. "When Pakistan is not playing cricket or hockey, I always support India. It's a much better side and one of the best Indian teams I have seen. They have improved a lot and they are giving hard times to the Europeans.

"They (India) can win and they should win this Olympics," the ace centre forward, who was instrumental in leading Pakistan to a gold medal at the 1984 LA Olympics, told PTI Bhasha.

"I am quite impressed with the way they have played against Australia. The Indian team is good. They should play as if they have gone there to win only. At this level it's all about mental preparation," he added.

Playing with 10 men for close to 40 minutes after Amit Rohidas was shown a red card for unintentionally hitting rival forward Will Calnan on his face on Sunday, India defended stoutly to hold Britain 1-1 in regulation time and force a shoot-out, where it emerged 4-2 winner.

And Sardar said mental strength and unity of this Indian team is what that differentiates it from others.

"We had beaten Australia in the semifinals on our way to win gold in the 1984 LA Olympics. We talked in the team meeting and had the belief that we can beat Australia and we did that. Mentally Indians have to be very strong and keep their morale high.” he said.

"It is always difficult to play with 10 players and India did extremely well. Especially, the captain who is in top