The Spanish men's team arrived on Monday in Bhubaneswar to face the hosts India in the FIH Hockey Pro League two-legged tie, scheduled to take place on February 26 and 27 at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium.
Expressing delight at the prospect of playing India at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium, the Spanish Captain Marc Miralles said, "We are happy to be in India and really excited to play at one of the most iconic hockey stadiums in the world. We can't wait to play against the home side, and are hopeful of putting up a show that people will enjoy in the two matches."
Having lost both their opening matches against England earlier this month, the World No. 9 Spanish side will look to register their first wins of the Pro League season when they take on the home side over the weekend.
Speaking about the team's approach for the upcoming matches, Spain's Head Coach Max Caldas said, "We are not too concerned about the losses against England. We have just started, we've played only two matches, so I wouldn't put too much emphasis on winning or losing yet. We were really competitive in our opening matches, and will try to play our brand of hockey against India."
Meanwhile, Miralles added," Despite the losses, I think there were a lot of things that we did great. So hopeful of learning from our mistakes and improving on them. We need the first wins in this Pro League season, so we keep having faith in the way we trained, and what our coach is telling us to do."
Speaking about the team's preparedness, the Spanish skipper said that they have been training a lot for the past couple of weeks and are ready for the challenge against India.
"These past couple of weeks, we've been training a lot, we've seen a lot of games. We know how the Indian team play, we know their physicality and skills, so yeah we want to stay focused on the matches and we're ready for the challenge. I think we'll be having an interesting series against India and hopefully, we'll win against them," signed-off Miralles.
The double-header between India and Spain will be played on Saturday and Sunday at 19:30 hrs IST.
( With inputs from ANI )
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