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Hockey Coach Craig Fulton lauded the "belief" of the Indian men's team who crafted a memorable shootout win in the semifinals of the men's hockey competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics despite being done to ten men.
A red card shown to defender Amit Rohidas who appeared to swing his stick at Will Calnan's face gave Great Britain a one-man advantage for 42 minutes of the crucial Olympic quarterfinal encounter.
Far from being subdued by the unfortunate incident, the Indians not only took the lead but denied Paul Revington's team a second goal thus forcing a shootout which the eight-time Olympic champions won in style.
During a post-match interview, Fulton who sounded hoarse after the nerve-wracking contest said the team had to change their initial game plan and adopt a defensive approach following the red card.
"It just shows what happens in sports when you have a real belief about what you're doing, anything can happen. We got a red card, unfortunately. I'll have to look at it again. But we had to keep playing and we did, and we got a result. As you know, my voice is gone I can't shout anymore," the 49-year-old said.
"It (the red card) changed the whole game so we had to go for another plan and defend more. So, we've been talking about defence for a long time because 'defend to counter to win' came good today. We got our one chance took it and yeah, the rest is history," Craig Fulton affirmed.
The Indian men's hockey team who were tied 1-1 with Great Britain after regulation time won the shootout 4-2 to make it to a second successive Olympic semifinal. Harmanpreet Singh's 22nd-minute goal proved vital for the Indians who had to defend for much of the contest.
"We defend for Sreejesh and he does it for us" - Hockey coach Craig Fulton
Craig Fulton declared that Sreejesh's experience was an asset to the team before adding that both the Indian goalkeeper and the rest of the team "defend for each other."
The Indian goalkeeper manufactured a range of stunning saves to deny the Great Britain strikers much like he had during the pool game against Australia that India won 3-2.
"That's why you need experience and that's why you got to love your 'keeper, you know. Everyone loves Sreejesh and we all defend for Sreejesh because when he makes a save, we have got to get on the next rebound and that's the next thing you know," the chief coach said.
"That's the way you show how much you care about defending, how much you love it and how will protect and look after the guy next to you. We do that for Sreejesh and he does it for us," Fulton declared.
Fulton refused to deliberate on whether he would prefer to take on Argentina or Germany in the big semifinal on August 6. The coach of the Indians men's hockey team who took over early last year, stressed that the boys need to enjoy the moment following the magnificent win.
"Let's enjoy today, you know, yeah, just enjoy the moment. We're in a semi-final. You still got two games. You can't jump to anything let's enjoy the moment and I'm happy man for today," he said.
India will play the winners of the upcoming Argentina-Germany match in Tuesday's semifinal even as Spain stunned defending champions Belgium 3-2 in the second quarterfinal of the men's hockey competition at Paris 2024 on Sunday.
