Hamilton: India suffered a heartbreaking loss to Belgium via penalty shootout after holding the World No.3 side to 4-4 in regulation time in the final of the Four-Nations Invitational Tournament’s second leg here.
It was Felix Denayer, Sebastien Dockier and Arthur van Doren who scored for Belgium in the shootout. Tanguy Cosyns (41st), Cedric Charlier (43rd), Amaury Keusters (51st) and Felix Denayer (56st) scored during regulation time.
For India, Ramandeep Singh (29th, 53th), Nilakanta Sharma (42nd) and Mandeep Singh (49th) were the goal scorers before the shootout.
Earlier in the day, Japan beat hosts New Zealand 4-1 in the shootout for bronze after holding the Black Sticks to 1-1 in regulation time.
After the barren first quarter India won two back-to-back PCs at the start of the second quarter but couldn’t make much of it before finally taking the lead, thanks to clever some work by Mandeep Singh in finding Ramandeep Singh at the top of the circle. Ramandeep had the time to control the ball and take a sure shot into the goal.
The action intensified in the third quarter with Belgium upping their attack, winning an equaliser in the 41st minute through Tanguy Cosyns’s well-executed PC.
Moments later, India’s Nilakanta Sharma struck the ball past Vincent Vanasch into Belgium post to regain 2-1 lead in the 42nd minute. But Belgium equalised in the following minute, via Cedric Charlier using a reverse hit.
Four goals were scored in the final quarter showing just how intense this match was. India won back their lead twice in this quarter (3-2, 4-3) when Mandeep scored in the 49th minute followed by a sensational goal by Ramandeep Singh in the 53rd minute respectively.
But Belgium, are not the ones to give up easy as they snatched India’s lead through Amaury Keusters (51st) and Felix Denayer (56th) ensuring the match went into a penalty shootout.
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