London, June 16: They play Canada in their second pool match of the Hockey World League Semifinals here Saturday, but India have already set their sights on Sunday’s much-anticipated clash against Pakistan.
Although India skipper Manpreet Singh tried to downplay the hype surrounding the Pakistan encounter, he said they will be going out all guns blazing to garner full points.
“We always look at Pakistan as just another team and we always look at earning those three points from the match to advance in the league stage,” the midfielder said on the eve of the match against Canada.
“They (Pakistan) are a good side, but we have had a good start to the tournament. The idea will be to stick to the plans our coach draws up before the match against both Canada and Pakistan. The plan will be to bring in more aggression into our game and aim at finishing on top of the table in the league stage,” said an optimistic Manpreet.
Even though India pocketed a comfortable 4-1 win Thursday over lowly-ranked Scotland, they were far from impressive at the start. They conceded an early goal before turning things around in the second session. Manpreet is the first to acknowledge that they could have played better.
“We knew we didn’t start well. But coach gave us that confidence during the break stating there’s still 30 minutes to go and nothing is lost yet. He asked us to bring more energy and aggression into our game,” Manpreet pointed out.
After the mini scare against Scotland, the Indians are taking nothing for granted even though Canada (11th) is ranked lower than India (sixth). “No question of taking anything for granted, they are a good team. So we will have to be on our guard and play the roles assigned to us to perfection,” said Manpreet.
