Women’s Hockey Worldcup is currently trending in our country since team India is playing very well in the matches. After setting a 1-1 draw with the USA, India ranked 10th will now face Italy, ranked 17th in the knockout match on July 31 from 10:30 pm IST.
While India had to fight their way into the knock-out round 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.
It will be good for India to maintain the momentum while it will be difficult for Italy to bounce back after a big defeat.
Experienced India captain Rani knows what it takes to win such crucial matches and said they need to go full throttle.
“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-final,” said Rani whose goal against the USA enables India to finish third in Pool B.
Rani emphasised the need to have a winning mentality to do well in big tournaments.”We all knew a draw would be enough, but we wanted to go for the win. I think 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 the USA and now we need to once again do everything we can to win against Italy,” she said.
The Indians would also draw inspiration from their shoot-out victory against the Italians at the 2015 Hockey World League Semi-final.”Italy is a good team and they have enjoyed good wins in this tournament too. But we need to go into the match with the self-belief that we can beat them,” Rani said.
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