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India face Poland on 23rd June in the Hockey World League (HWL) semi-final in a group A clash. Having beaten the lowest-ranked team in the group, France, by the narrowest of margins, India can not afford to take anyone lightly and captain Sardar Singh echoed that.
He said that Poland have some quality players in their team and remembered the last time the two sides met was back in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics. Poland got a last-gasp equaliser that stopped India going any further in the tournament.
“Poland is a good team and if they are in the Semi-Final round that means they have some quality players in their team. We can’t afford to take them lightly at any moment as they are capable of turning matches in their favour,” said the captain of the Indian team.
The win over France boosted our morale: Sardar
The 28-year old called the win against France a morale-boosting victory and warned Poland that they will go for the win.
“We will continue our strategy of keeping the ball possession on our side and play aggressively till the last minute. The win against France boosted our morale and we have set our feet in Antwerp. We will play for the win only,” he said.
Poland lost their first match to India’s arch-rivals Pakistan by a narrow 2-1 scoreline. And India’s coach Paul van Ass said that they are being careful of Poland and not considering them as minnows.
“The first match was a good one for us and we will continue our form in the next match. We are not considering Poland as minnows because they have some noticeable talents who are a cause for worry for us,” said Van Ass.
The Dutchman said that they will stick to their strategies and would like to give youngsters more opportunities.
He said, “We will stick to our strategies of the previous match, but will make some changes in the team combinations. We have some good young players and I want to give them more opportunities. Having said that, we will not give any chance to Poland to dominate the match and we are looking for a win against them.”
India vs Poland is live at 9.30 pm on Star Sports.
