The Indian women’s Hockey team comprehensively defeated Italy 3-0 to march into quarter finals of the Hockey World cup 2018. It was a clinical performance by the Indian team as they played with great precision and intent throughout the game.
India had a difficult time to begin with as they drew 1-1 against England before losing to Ireland 0-1. The decisive 1-1 draw against United States in the third round helped them making it to the knockout stage.
Coming back to the game, Lalremsiami, Neha Goyal and Vandana scored for the Indian women’s hockey team, setting up a quarter-final date with Ireland in the Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018.
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India kept possession in initial part of the game moving slowly and steadily without taking any major risks which created strong foundation against a decent Italian side.
The calmness and composure was rewarded at end of the quarter as India won a penalty corner. The corner was taken quickly which surprised Italy’s defence which led to a chaos in the middle. Lalremsiami was sharp enough to take advantage of the situation from close range and drew the first blood. They followed the second quarter with sheer dominance keeping the lead intact going into half time.
Team India looked in full throttle as they kept dominating the game and got one goal each in third as well as the final quarter. India have faced Italy quite a few times at big stages including 2014-15 World League Semi-Finals.
On the other hand, Italy were going well until this point as they defeated China 3-0 and Korea 1-0 respectively in their first two matches of the Hockey World Cup but had no answers against an impressive Indian outfit.