Paris 2024: Brave Ireland go down to hockey champions Belgium

Belgium 2-0 Ireland

Ireland faced an uphill battle against Olympic champions Belgium in their opening Pool B clash in the men's hockey at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium and so it proved.

The margin could have been greater if not for a stellar performance from veteran goalkeeper David Harte, who pulled off a string of saves to deny the dominant Belgians.

Tom Boon eventually gave Belgium the lead in the second quarter, before a decent period for Ireland, with Jeremy Duncan and Daragh Walsh both forcing saves from Belgium's goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch.

Ireland held out and frustrated the Belgians, raising hopes of a smash and grab, until the final quarter when Alexander Hendrickx swept home the second with 12 minutes to go from a penalty corner.

Ireland had a penalty corner late on but couldn't break down the Belgian defence.

Ireland head coach Mark Tumilty said the champions were not the same side they beat twice in the FIH Pro League earlier in May.

"It was a different Belgium side to the one we faced in Antwerp," he told RTÉ Sport. "The second goal from the corner was a bit of a killer. Belgium were very well set up today."

Ireland have been drawn in a very difficult pool, with the three medallists from Tokyo and all five teams ranked higher than the Green Machine. The next face Australia at 9am on Monday.

"Australia will be another challenge in the next few days. We need to be a bit braver with the ball to create chances against these teams."

We need your consent to load this comcast-player content We use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences

Goalkeeper Harte, who kept the score