Dec 03: Two latter-half goals in a span of five minutes saved the day for India as they came from behind to snatch a 2-1 win over Italy in the league encounter, keeping their hopes alive to qualify for the finals, of the four-nation Lal Bahadur Shastri women’s hockey tournament played at the Shivaji Stadium here on Sunday.
Saba Anjum (48th) and Suman Bala (53rd) found the goal from short corners for the hosts after Italy took the lead through Quaranta Valentina in the 29th minute.
The match started on the rousing note with both the teams pushing hard to surge ahead. Indian team was close to get the lead as early in the 5th minute but the Italian custodian finely blocked Saba Anjum’s reverse hit inside the striking circle.
Indian team had to blame themselves for their poor first half-show, as the players had lots of mispasses and lack of ball control. But the coach G S Bhangu defended his wards by saying that at the moment we are experimenting with our side by roping in lots of young players in various positions to judge them before going into the Olympic qualifiers so these things will happen.
“We opted the defensive strategy in the earlier part of the game and after conceding a goal we adopted the attacking ploy which later paid off,” said Bhangu.
Italy surged ahead in the 29th minute via penalty corner conversion. It was the third PC as they had wasted the first two in trying different combinations but this time Quaranta Valentina herself dragged it inside instead of passing it to others.
Italy was leading 1-0 at the stroke of lemon- break after dominating the much part of the first half with their one-touch game, precision passes and ball control.
Trailing with a goal Indian team got their act together in the second-half and started penetration in the rival camp, launching flurry of attacks. Indian team got the equaliser in the 48th minute through Saba Anjum deft touch off to a PC bound movement.
Five minutes later Suman Bala sounded the board by a direct hit on a penalty corner. India had wasted as many as five short corners out of six earned by them.
India have collected four points from two matches and needs just a draw on Tuesday against already qualified Azerbaijan team to make it to the final while Italy are out of the tournament with two losses.
Azerbaijan, who beat Malaysia 4-1 in the first match of the day, also qualified for the final with six points from two matches. They had beaten Italy 4-2 in the first match of Sunday. Malaysia has slim chances of making into the final as they will have to beat Italy tomorrow and wait for the India-Azerbaijan match to have any chance of making it to the final.
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