Ireland to renew World Cup battle with India
Ireland face a rematch with India in the Hockey World Cup quarter-finals tomorrow evening as the Asian side eased by the challenge of Italy 3-0 in their crossover tie in London.
It means a reprise of the group match between the teams, Graham Shaw’s side coming out the victors courtesy of a single Anna O’Flanagan goal.
In that performance and the win over Italy, though, there is little to suggest the Green Army will get an easy ride from a speedy Indian outfit.
While they have never beaten Ireland in tournament play, they did boss the main attacking statistics in game one.
Indeed, while the defence has been solid, conceding just twice in three games, with Ayeisha McFerran superb between the posts, the volume of penalty corners conceded is another area that will need to be tightened up.
The game itself has been moved to 6pm from the originally allotted 8.15pm.
This is to accommodate BT Sport’s request to have the meeting of world No1 Netherlands against No2-ranked England — a repeat of the Olympic final — in the primetime slot, much to the chagrin of Irish fans.
The FIH only confirmed the change of time in the wake of England’s controversial 2-0 win over South Korea at 9.30pm yesterday.
