Tokyo Olympics: India women's hockey team to face Ireland in must-win game

The India women's hockey team will look to put the disappointing result against Great Britain on Wednesday behind them when they take on World Number 9 side Ireland in their fourth Group Stage match at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.

The equation for Team India is such that they must emerge with a win against Ireland to keep their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals alive. Ireland will be approaching the match on the back of a 4 - 2 defeat at the hands of Germany on Wednesday; but with plenty of incentive as the Irish side can secure their own quarter-final berth with a win.

Chief coach Sjoerd Marijne reflected on the team's performance against Great Britain, and spoke about the changes that the team must make for the match against Ireland.

"We underperformed as a team against Great Britain. It wasn't a good match on our part, and we must quickly put it behind us and move on as there are still 6 very crucial points to play for in the Group Stage. We have to aim for the full 6 points from the next two games. It's now or never," said Marijne.

Captain Rani believes that the team must assess their performance relative to the strength of opposition they have faced so far in the competition. "Our Olympic campaign began with a series of matches against three of the best hockey teams in the world. Although the results have not been in our favour, we have approached and played each match with the right mentality.

"We will continue to do so in the next two games, and give it everything we have as a team to try and get 6 points to qualify for the knockout rounds," said Rani.

Speaking about the match against Ireland, Rani said, "Ireland are a good team, and they are also our closest competitor in our pool. We have to do better to convert our goal scoring chances against them; both in terms of field goal attempts and penalty corners. We did well against Great Britain to win so many penalty corners; our goal came from a PC as well. We have to improve our conversion rate in the coming matches."

( With inputs from ANI )

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