Pressure will be on Australia as they are top ranked: coach Marijne

TOKYO: Indian women's hockey team chief coach Sjoerd Marijne believes the onus will be on Australia, heading into the quarterfinal clash on Monday, adding that his side was in "good rhythm" ahead of the knockout match.

The Indian women's team has made history by entering the knockout stages of the Olympics for the first time. The team had left Indian shores for Tokyo with the target of reaching the quarters and it managed that by finishing fourth with two wins and three defeats in the six-team Pool A.

Marijne said, "The pressure will be on Australia as they are one of the highest-ranked teams in the competition. We will be able to play freely, which is very important for us. Our own focus is on approaching each game one at a time and to keep improving with every match. We have a training session today to stay in good rhythm ahead of the game, and then tomorrow we will take the field and try to express ourselves there."

After a slow start to their Olympic campaign, which began with losses against the Netherlands (5-1), Germany (2-0) and Great Britain 4-1), India made a late surge to defeat Ireland (1-0) and South Africa (4-3) back-to-back in their last two games in Pool A and book their place in the quarterfinal.

India will now come up against Australia in search of a semifinal spot in the Olympics. The Australian team boasts the best defensive record thus far in the Olympics, having conceded just one goal in the entire group stage and picking up an impressive 15 points out 15.

However, Marijne said that India must not get preoccupied with the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.

"We have to keep playing our game, like we did in the group stage. We won our last two matches because we learnt from the mistakes we made early on and made improvements accordingly. We have been creating a lot of chances throughout the competition, but our conversion of those chances has not been up to the mark. We need to get better in that department, while also giving away fewer chances to the opposition."

Captain Rani Rampal has led the team from the front so far. Ahead of the clash, Rani said, "We showed a lot of character to win our last two games after facing disappointment early on in the group stage. Winning our matches against Ireland and South Africa facing elimination speaks a lot about the determination and mentality of this team. Competing against a world-class team like Australia to get to the semifinal in the Olympics will require a special performance from the team, and I am confident that we have the ability to achieve a special result.

"We will go into the game without putting too much pressure on ourselves and do what we do best — play hockey," said the captain. IANS

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