The Indian men's hockey team will face the Netherlands in the second European leg of the FIH Hockey Pro League matches in Eindhoven on Wednesday.
India had got off to a poor start to their European tour of the Pro League as they succumbed to two successive defeats. But the Men in Blue overturned the results and ended their London campaign with victories against Belgium and Great Britain.
India are currently second in the league standings with 24 points from 12 matches and will look to topple Britain, who have 26 points, from the pole position.
Craig Fulton, the new head coach of the Indian team, is happy with the progress of his troops and will take one match at a time to get three points from each encounter.
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What did Craig Fulton say about the Indian team?
"We had some learnings from the first weekend. It is never good to lose two games in a row but we had a really good response for the next two games. The team played really well and deserved the win against Belgium (5-1). It's tough to play back-to-back matches, GB was coming into the second match fresh while we had just played Belgium the previous evening. They are a good team and managed to score in the end after we had established the lead but it was nice to win a shootout 4-4 (SO 4-2)," said Craig Fulton on the four matches played in London.
What did Harmanpreet Singh say?
"I think our counter attacks were also good in the second match against Belgium and GB. Playing back-to-back matches against two teams who play a very different style is always challenging but we worked on areas that could bring us back in the game. Our PC defence was a good takeaway too," stated the skipper who has scored 16 goals so far in the league and is leading the table.
How to watch FIH Pro League's India vs Netehrlands in India?
The FIH Pro League match between India and Netherlands can be watched on Star Sports First, Star Sports First HD, Star Sports Select 2 and Star Sports Select 2 HD and can be streamed live on FanCode.
| Match | TV channels | Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| India vs Belgium | Star Sports First, Star Sports First HD, Star Sports Select 2 and Star Sports Select 2 HD | FanCode |
India vs Netherlands overall Head-to-Head record
The two teams have met each other 110 times in history with the Netherlands having the edge over India with 50 wins to their name. India have won on 34 occasions, while 26 matches have been drawn.
| Matches | India wins | Netherlands wins | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | 34 | 50 | 26 |
India vs Netherlands in FIH Pro League
The two teams have met each other four times in the Pro League with both teams winning two games each.
| Matches | India wins | Netherlands wins | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
India vs Netherlands last 5 meetings
In five meetings between the two teams, the Netherlands have won three times.
| Matches | India wins | Belgium wins | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
India squad for FIH Pro League European leg
Goalkeepers: Krishan Bahadur Pathak, PR Sreejesh.
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh (captain), Amit Rohidas, Jarmanpreet Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sumit, Sanjay, Mandeep Mor, Gurinder Singh.
Midfielders: Hardik Singh (vice-captain), Dilpreet Singh, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Shamsher Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad.
Forwards: Abhishek, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, S Karthi, Gurjant Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Raj Kumar Pal, Mandeep Singh, Simranjeet Singh.
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