Olympics: Hockey At Paris 2024: India, Spain, Netherlands And Germany Reach Final Four

India 1-1 Great Britain (4-2 after shoot-out) 
India men reached the Olympic semi-finals against all odds, defeating Great Britain in a shoot-out despite being a player down for almost three quarters of the match after Amit Rohidas was shown a red card. 

Remarkably, India took a shock lead five minutes later through a Harmanpreet Singh penalty corner before Great Britain’s Lee Morton tied the scores ahead of half time. India produced a remarkable defensive display for the remainder of the contest, forcing a shoot-out in which they triumphed thanks to goalkeeping heroics from PR Sreejesh, who is set to retire after Paris 2024. 

“It was so amazing”, said experienced midfielder and former India captain Manpreet Singh, who won Olympic bronze with the team at Tokyo 2020. “I expected that (it would be difficult) when we lost one guy, but we still defended very well. So I give thanks to our entire team, because they gave their best today.”

Belgium 2-3 Spain
In the second quarter-final, Spain produced a masterclass in game management to end Belgium’s hopes of winning a second successive Olympic gold medal. 

The Red Sticks emerged 3-2 winners against the Tokyo 2020 champions to reach their first Olympic semi-final since Beijing 2008, where a team containing generational talents such as Pol Amat, Santi Freixa and Edi Tubau went on to become silver medallists. 

“I’m so happy right now”, said Marc Miralles, who contributed to the scoreline alongside Jose Basterra and Marc Reyne, after the match. “I’m really proud of how we played the whole game. We moved the ball really well, we communicated really well. We defended so good all the time.”

Netherlands 2-0 Australia
The Netherlands became the third men’s team to reach the semi-finals, defeating Australia 2-0 to exact revenge on the side that defeated them at the same stage of the tournament at Tokyo 2020. 

It was another fiercely contested match at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium, with the large contingent of Dutch fans getting the win that they so desperately wanted thanks to goals from Duco Telgenkamp and Thijs van Dam. Telgenkamp’s superb penalty corner deflection came five minutes into the second half, with Van Dam scoring a stunning solo goal to effectively kill off the Kookaburras – who rallied hard in the latter stages – with eight minutes remaining.

“I feel amazing”, said Netherlands goal-scorer Telgenkamp after the match. “It was just a fighting game. We fought until the end to get a good result. it was just a fantastic performance from the team.”

Germany 3-2 Argentina
Germany kept alive their quest for the fifth Olympic gold medal with a hard-fought win against Argentina, who twice fought back before Germany’s Justus Weigand scored a late winner to break the hearts of Los Leones at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Die Honamas twice lead through Teo Hinrichs and Gonzalo Peillat, only for Maico Casella and Agustin Mazzilli to peg back Germany on each occasion. However, it was to be Germany’s day, with Weigand tapping into an unguarded net after a surging run and pass from Niklas Wellen. 

Looking ahead to Germany’s semi-final against India on Tuesday, Rühr said: “India is going to be hell of a game. I mean, they got the red card and worked their way through to the shoot-out, which is extraordinary. And yeah, we’ve got to be there. And if we were there, we’re going to win, but we’ve got to show up.”

Further information and statistics on all of today’s matches can be found by clicking here.  

Notable figures attending the Olympic hockey at Yves-du-Manoir on Day 9 included the Duchess of Edinburgh of the British royal family, legendary football coach Louis van Gaal, Bollywood star Taapsee Pannu, Danish badminton player Matias Boe and Pawan Munjal, the CEO of Hero MotoCorp. 

The knock-out phase of the Paris 2024 Olympic hockey competition continues on Monday 5 August with four fantastic women’s quarter-finals at Yves-du-Manoir Hockey Stadium.

At 10:00 CEST, Pool B winners Australia face Pool A’s fourth placed team China as former Hockeyroos team-mates Katrina Powell and Alyson Annan, the respective coaches of Australia and China, go head-to-head.

At 12:30, Pool B runners up Argentina face Pool A’s third placed team Germany before Pool A winners the Netherlands take on Great Britain, who finished fourth in Pool B, at 17:30.