Despite India losing to the Netherlands 1-2 on Thursday in the pool B match, the team led by PR Sreejesh managed to find a place in last eight of the men's hockey competition. India went through to the knockout stages after Argentina and Germany played out an exciting 4-4 draw in a later group match.
Netherlands scored both their goals from penalty corners through Rogier Hoffman (32nd minute) and Mink van der Weerden (54th), while India's lone goal came from the stick of VR Raghunath (38th).
But the match witnessed intense drama in the final seconds as India did not bow out without a fight against the world ranked 2 side.
Trailing 1-2 with four minutes left, India withdrew goalkeeper PR Sreejesh for an additional forward and pressed hard for the equaliser. Their efforts bore fruit as India earned their fourth penalty corner six seconds from the hooter after appealing for a video referral.
That penalty corner resulted in four more back-to-back short corners but the Indian dragflick battery of Rupinder Pal Singh, who took four tries, and Raghunath failed to break the Dutch defence led by goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann.
The Men in Blue, thus, suffered another heart-breaking defeat after the late loss to reigning Olympic champions Germany in their second Pool B game.
A draw against Netherlands on Thursday would have sealed India's place in the quarterfinals. But they now will have to wait for the result of their last pool encounter against Canada on Friday.
India are now placed third in Pool B with six points behind leaders Netherlands (10) and Germany (9). Argentina are placed fourth with four points.
After a barren first two quarters, Netherlands drew the first blood in the 32nd minute when Hofman scored from a rebound after Sreejesh made a fine save to deny Van der Weerden from their first penalty corner.
It took India just six minutes to draw level through Raghunath, who converted the second of two back-to-back penalty corners.
Netherlands then put immense pressure on the Indian defence and, in the process, secured three more penalty corners in quick succession. While Sreejesh saved two efforts, Van der Weerden finally managed to beat the Indian custodian with a low, powerful flick to the bottom right corner to hand Netherlands 2-1 lead.