Hockey World Cup 2023 / India's winning start in World Cup, beat Spain 2-0

Hockey World Cup 2023: The Indian team has started the Hockey World Cup with a win. On Friday, the first day of the tournament, India beat Spain 2-0 with a brilliant performance. In this Pool D match, the Indian team kept the pressure on Spain from the very beginning. In particular, the Indian defenders put up a stellar performance, which resulted in Spain never finding their way past the Indian goal post in the match. This win has put the Indian team on top of their pool along with England. England, while playing the first match of the World Cup today, defeated their neighboring country Wales by a big margin of 5-0.

India got the lead in the first quarter

In this match, Amit Rohidas scored the first goal for India in the first quarter. This goal was scored in the 12th minute of the game with the help of a penalty corner. After this, there were no more goals scored in this part of the game. After the first quarter, skipper Harmanpreet Singh's team was leading 1-0.

India doubled the lead in the second quarter

Like the first quarter, the pace of the game was a bit slow for the first 10 minutes in the second as well. Hardik Singh accelerated this pace. In the 26th minute of the game, he scored a classical field goal to give India a 2-0 lead.

Fourth quarter: Yellow card to Abhishek, India also lost two penalties

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Abhishek got a yellow card. In the last 10 minutes, India missed two penalty corners, but the Spanish team failed to score. Spain got penalty corners in the 53rd and 57th minutes.

Third quarter: India missed 3 goals, captain missed penalty

After half time both the teams continued to attack. India got a penalty kick in the second quarter of the third quarter and in the 32nd minute of the match, but Indian captain Harmanpreet could not capitalize on the opportunity. Spanish goalkeeper Rafi Adrian made a brilliant save. Rain Mark got a yellow card in the very next minute. India also got two penalty corners in the 37th and 43rd minutes. But the goal did not come. The score line remained 2-0 after three quarters.

Second quarter: Hardik's goal doubles lead, Spain misses penalty

Before the half-time, the Spanish team made a lot of efforts to equalize, but the Indian defenders failed them. He got a chance to equalize in the form of a penalty corner in the 24th minute, but the visiting team could not capitalize on it. Soon after, in the 26th minute, Hardik Singh scored a brilliant field goal to increase India's lead to 2-0. Akashdeep got the green card just before half time.

1st quarter: Amit Rohidas gives 1-0 lead

India has taken a 1-0 lead in the first quarter of the game. Amit Rohidas scored a rebound from the second penalty corner in the 12th minute of the match. However, the team has also missed two chances to score from the penalty spot. Kunil Pepe got the green card in the 12th minute.

See India and Spain's starting-11

India: Surendra Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh (Captain), PR Sreejesh, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Akashdeep Singh, Amit Rohidas and Sukhjit Singh.

Spain: Alejandro Alonso, Javier Gispert, Enrique Gonzalez, Alvaro Iglesias, Marc Miralles (c), Jordi Bonastre, Pepe Conil, Joaquin Menini, Adrien Rafi, Ignacio Rodriguez, Borja Lacalle.