Tokyo Olympics: India hockey stars focus on bronze medal match despite Belgium hazard
“It is really hard for me right now because we came with a winning mindset, but unfortunately we didn’t win the match. Now we need to focus on our next bronze-medal match and we need to work and we need to get the medal,” Manpreet said.
“It’s a great honour for us reaching the semifinal after a long time, but now I think we need to focus because the next match is going to be really important for us. At least we should win a bronze medal for the nation,” he added.
The skipper said having toiled hard for the last five years to reach this level, India deserved a better result.
“It’s always been hard work and togetherness. This team has been together for the last four or five years. We have worked really hard to be reaching this level. We deserve better, and unfortunately we couldn’t get it today.” Sreejesh agreed with his skipper and said the loss against Belgium is a thing of the past now and the team needs to focus on returning home with a medal from here.
“Disappointed, but you don’t have time to worry about that. You need to forget about that and think about the future. Now we still have a chance to win a medal and that’s more important for us than crying at this time,” he said.
“It’s more important for us to think about the future, watch the match, think about where we lost, where we committed the mistakes, rectify that, and move on,” he added.
