India men’s hockey team beats Great Britain, enters first Olympic semifinal in 49 years

India scored three field goals through Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Hardik Singh to seal a 3-1 victory, and will face Belgium in the semifinals Tuesday.

Gurjant Singh (left) leads the celebrations after scoring India's second goal in a 3-1 win over Great Britain, in Tokyo on 1 August 2021 | Twitter @TheHockeyIndia

Tokyo: The Indian men’s hockey team defeated Great Britain 3-1 in a quarterfinal match to qualify for the semifinals of Olympics Games after 49 years here on Sunday.

India scored three field goals through Dilpreet Singh (7th minute), Gurjant Singh (16th) and Hardik Singh (57th) to seal the win for the eight-time Olympic champions.

The lone goal for Great Britain was scored by Sam Ward in the 45th minute.

Even though India’s last of the eight Olympic gold medals came way back in 1980 Moscow Games, there were no semifinals in that edition as only six teams participated in the event.

The last time India featured in the semifinals of the Olympics was in 1972 Munich Games where they lost 0-2 to arch-rivals Pakistan.

India will take on world champions Belgium in the semifinal on Tuesday.

Belgium defeated Spain 3-1 in another quarterfinal to seal their place in the last four round.

The other semifinal of the men’s hockey competition will be played between Australia and Germany.