Staring at an early exit after three consecutive losses, the Indian women’s hockey team can’t settle for anything less than a victory against Ireland in its penultimate pool match here on Friday to keep its quarterfinal hopes alive in the Olympic Games.
But after three morale-shattering defeats, it would be a Herculean task for the Indians to lift their confidence and outplay a higher ranked side like world No 7 Ireland.
India are currently placed fifth in the six-team Pool A, just below Ireland who have registered just one win and two losses from their three games.
India and South Africa are yet to open their accounts. The top four teams from each pool will qualify for the knockout stage.
The road ahead is tough for India as they would need to win both their remaining two games — against Ireland and South Africa (on Saturday) — and improve their goal difference to be on the safe side.
They would also need favourable results from other games and hope for a Great Britain victory over Ireland on Saturday.
But these equations will come into picture only if India can beat Ireland on Friday.
So, it would be a do-or-die match for the Sjoerd Marijne-coached team and he would desperately hope for a better showing from his players against Ireland.