The Indian men's hockey team beat Australia at the Olympic Games for the first time since 1972, outsmarting the formidable rivals 3-2 to finish second in Pool B on August 2.
Skipper Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace as India gave a power-packed performance and registered the famous win over long-standing rivals and Tokyo Games silver medalist Australia in its final pool match.
With this win, India ended their pool engagements in the second position with 10 points, finishing behind table toppers Belgium with 13 points.
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Already assured of a quarterfinal berth before Friday's encounter, the Indians played valiantly and dominated the proceedings for a major part of the match to stun the Kookaburras, against whom they last won in the Olympics in the 1972 Munich edition.
Abhishek and Harmanpreet scored for India while Tom Craig and Blake Govers scored for Australia.
India will now play against Great Britain in the quarterfinals on August 5 while Pool A toppers Netherlands will face Argentina.
In other quarterfinal matches, Germany will play Australia, while Belgium will be up against Spain.
"It was an important match. We needed a match like this before the quarterfinals. From the start, we put them under pressure. It's a proud moment to beat Australia," captain Harmanpreet said after the match, as per a PTI report.
"We took it quarter by quarter. It's always said that Australia is a big team, although we don't approach the match with that mentality, it's big win for us."
Through to the knockout stages, India skipper Harmanpreet said there is no scope for lapse or error from here on.
"There will be no margin for error from now onwards. We try to win great matches in every major tournament and trying to keep the great legacy of Indian hockey going. There is never a perfect match. Some or other thing remains. Like if you talk about today's match, possession is one area where we can do well," he said.
With agency inputs
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