TIL Desk Sports/ Indian goalie P.R. Sreejesh said that having sealed qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the men”s team now faces a tough road to the big event. India sealed their qualification for the Games with a 11-3 win over Russia in a two-legged qualifier that was held at the Kalinga stadium on November 1 and 2. However, the match was much more difficult than the scoreline suggests.
Sreejesh admitted that Russia, who were the lowest ranked team in the qualifiers, surprised them, especially in the first leg. “They are ranked 22nd and we are fifth so people were more excited about how India is going to thrash Russia. But they surprised us in the first match definitely with the good, hard hockey that they played.
That was a wake-up call for all of us,” Sreejesh told on the sidelines of the launch of Musashi performance nutrition brand in the national capital. He however said that the qualifiers was the kind of high-pressure situation that the team would need to get used to going into the Olympics. “In the Olympics we are facing the toughest opponents in the world so that shows that you do have the chance to beat any team at any given day,” he said.
