FIH Men’s Junior World Cup: After sailing through group phase, India face tough test against Belgium in knockout quarterfinal

Egypt nearly scored immediately with an aerial into the circle before being thwarted by a desperate goal-line clearance by a defender. Still, Belgium’s situation was such that they simply had to take that risk and not worry about the downsides.

The only way Belgium could reach the quarterfinals was to beat Egypt by a massive margin to sneak in as the second-best second-placed team across the six pools.

The Young Red Lions, who had lost 0-2 against Spain to find themselves in a precarious situation, beat Egypt 10-0, which meant the other contenders had too much to do to make up the goal difference.

That’s the sort of challenge Belgium, and indeed most of the eight remaining teams, have come through to reach the quarterfinals. But the same cannot be said for India, their opponents in the knockout clash at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Friday.

In a 24-team tournament, the FIH made the group stage interesting as only the six pool winners were guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals, which meant some big names were in danger of early elimination. Australia ended up missing out. Five of the six groups had two pedigreed teams, which meant there was one serious early test in every pool.

But PR Sreejesh’s India had the easiest of paths to the knockouts because of Pakistan’s withdrawal from the tournament after the draw was made. Chile, Oman and Switzerland were brushed aside with varying degrees of ease. It was not lost on Sreejesh as he acknowledged this in the pre-tournament press conference.

“Realistically, the tournament starts for us from the quarterfinals. And for me, it’s a great challenge because I need to give my guys a task in every (pool) match they play, so that they are on their toes and don’t drop their level before the knockouts,” the former India goalkeeper said. “We need to keep our level high so that we prepare ourselves for the toughest competition from the quarterfinals onwards.”

PR Sreejesh’s India had the easiest of paths to the knockouts because of Pakistan’s withdrawal from the tournament after the draw was made (PTI Photo)

Well begun

In that regard, Sreejesh can be largely pleased with what he saw in the group stage, but he has constantly reminded his wards about the areas they need to improve in.

The first quarter against Chile was frustrating – “starting trouble,” as Sreejesh termed the goalless period – as were the opening 15 minutes against Oman.

Despite scoring 24 goals in the first two matches, Sreejesh said ahead of the Switzerland game that he wanted to see more “killer instinct” in front of goal from his attacking players. And after the Swiss test, where goalkeeper Princedeep Singh had to be at his best in the third quarter to preserve India’s clean sheet, the head coach said he’d like to see his defenders not commit silly mistakes.

At many points during the Oman match, India were camped in the opposition final third, with all 10 outfield players stationed in and around the attacking circle, leaving no space to work with. The challenge against Belgium will be completely different. India will not enjoy such territorial or possession advantage, but the attacking players could enjoy a bit more space and freedom to work with.

The pressure on defence is going to go up several notches, which would present a challenge to hold the ball and find the right connections going forward – the fundamental area of passing and receiving is something Sreejesh had identified as an area where work was needed after finishing second at the Sultan of Johor Cup recently.

On Friday, nothing that happened in the group stage is likely to matter. India go into the knockouts with 29 goals scored and 0 conceded. But against Belgium, the slate starts clean.