India go down 2-4 to Germany in semis

Team India’s defence unsuccessfully tries to keep the ball from entering its goal during their semi-final against Germany yesterday. Pic/PTI

Defending champions India's dream of a second consecutive Junior Hockey World Cup title was shattered on Friday as six-time winners Germany defeated the hosts 2-4 here.

Argentina win too

In the final on Sunday, Germany will be up against Argentina, who beat France 3-1 in penalty shootout in the first semi-final. The Indians, who last won the Junior World Cup title in Lucknow in 2016, looked a pale shadow of themselves against Germany.

The Germans scored through Erik Kleinlein (15th minute), Aron Flatten (21st), skipper Hannes Muller (24th) and Christopher Kutter (25th). For India, Uttam Singh (25th) and Boby Singh Dhami (60th) were the goal getters.

India will play France in the third-fourth place classification match on Sunday, before the final. India had earlier lost 4-5 against France in the pool stages.

COVID-19 strikes

Meanwhile, COVID-19 hit the ongoing event after an incident-free week with one positive case being reported on Friday.

Despite being held inside a bio-bubble and all media persons covering the event subjected to RT-PCR tests every 48 hours, one person, who has been accessing the media centre at the Kalinga Stadium, tested positive in RT-PCR test conducted on Thursday.

According to a member of the local organising committee, the person who tested positive is a social media team member of Department of Sports and Youth Services (DSYS), Odisha government.

Also Read: Umpires booed at Wankhede after Kohli's dismissal

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever