Motivated India Eye Victory Over Germany To script New Chapter In Olympic Men's Hockey

Having displayed nerves of steel to be within touching distance of a second successive Olympic medal, the Indian hockey team will fancy its chances against familiar foe and reigning world champion Germany in the semifinal of the ongoing Games, hoping to better the bronze that it claimed in the Tokyo edition. India won last of their eight Olympic gold medals way back in the 1980 Moscow Games. Paris provides them a great opportunity to make history. A semifinal win will ensure a silver for India, which they last won in the 1960 Rome edition.

The Indians displayed a tenacious performance against Britain in the quarterfinal at the iconic Yves-du-Manoir Stadium on Sunday.

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, the Harmanpreet Singh-led side defended stoutly to hold Britain 1-1 in regulation time and force a shoot-out, where it emerged 4-2 winner.

Veteran goalkeeper P R Sreejesh, playing his last international tournament, seemed to have saved his best for the last leg of his career as he made save after save, including two in the shoot-out, to seal India's second consecutive Olympic semifinal spot.

It was one of the bravest performances from the Indians as in modern day hockey, to play and win with a man down is a Herculean task.

And come Tuesday, Harmanpreet and his men would not only look to better the colour of their Tokyo medal but would also want to give a befitting farewell gift to the talismanic Sreejesh who will walk into the sunset after the Paris Games.

Nicknamed 'The Great Wall of Indian hockey', Sreejesh has been phenomenal in the Games so far, standing like a warrior in front of the post and enjoying