Pumped up India face Italy in World Cup knockouts

Bolstered by the campaign-saving draw against a mighty USA, the Indian women’s hockey team will fancy its chances against lower-ranked Italy in the cross-over World Cup match, here on Tuesday.

Ranked 10th, India will start as overwhelming favourites against 17th ranked Italy in the crucial knockout where a win will pit them against Ireland in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

While India had to fight their way into the knockouts from Pool B after registering two draws against England and USA and a loss to Ireland, Italy easily scrapped past China (3-0) and Korea (1-0) before slumping to a heavy 1-12 loss to Netherlands in their last match to finish second in Pool A.

But going into Tuesday’s game, the momentum would be on India’s side and it would also be difficult for Italy to bounce back from the morale-shattering loss against the Dutch. Under pressure, India, on the other hand, produced a spirited performance against USA to come out of a difficult situation and salvage their campaign.

Having conceded a goal in the 11th minute against USA, India’s backs were against the wall and it took a valiant all-round effort and an inspiring goal from skipper Rani Rampal (31st) to secure the all-important draw, a result which shut the doors on the Americans. The match would come as an added motivation for India as a win would provide them an opportunity to avenge their 0-1 loss to Ireland.

“We need to just focus on ourselves, build on our strength and ensure we use our positive points in the match against Italy. There is no doubt we need to go all-out in this crucial crossover match if we want to see ourselves in the quarter-finals,” said Rani.

“We all knew a draw would be enough but we wanted to go for the win. The hunger to win attitude helped us. We enter a match with the attitude that if we play a good match then the crowds will support us and that we must fight for the ball. I am proud of how the team played against USA and now we need to once again do everything we can to win against Italy,” she said.