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Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018: India beat Italy, advance to quarter-finals
Goals from Lalremsiami, Neha Goyal and Vandana were enough to give the Indian women’s hockey team the win and set-up a Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018 quarter-final date against Ireland.
The Indian women’s hockey team advanced to the quarter-finals of the Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018 with a comfortable 3-0 win over Italy in the pre-quarter cross-over match in London, England, on Tuesday. (Highlights)
Goals from Lalremsiami, Neha Goyal and Vandana were enough to give India the win and set-up a quarter-final date against Ireland.
India made a positive start to the game, looking to keep possession and generally not taking any extra risks in the first few minutes.
Towards the end of the quarter, India won a penalty corner. A quickly taken corner had the Italian defence surprised and Lalremsiami took advantage of the chaotic defence to slot home from close range to give India the lead.
The second quarter saw India take control of the game, something that was evident in the assured manner in which they kept possession and dictated the flow of the game. They went into half-time with their lead intact.
The third quarter saw India aim to extend their lead, but they found no luck to begin with. They came closest from another penalty corner but Deep Grace Ekka’s shot went agonisingly wide off the mark.
India got another penalty corner towards the end of the quarter but failed to convert that one as well. But they were not to be denied a second goal.
A scramble at the goal-mouth towards the end of the quarter saw Neha Goyal tap the ball in after the Italy ‘keeper failed to get the ball away from near the goal.
The final quarter was mostly about not conceding a goal. However, they did score a third goal to round off a dominant performance.
Gurjit Kaur placed a powerful pass for Vandana Katariya to deflect into the goal, putting an exclamation mark on what was a solid all-round performance by the team.
