Came here for gold, but bronze is better than going home empty-handed: Harmanpreet

Paris, Aug 6 (PTI) Indian hockey team skipper Harmanpreet Singh and veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh on Tuesday expressed their disappointment at not being able to realise their goal of winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics but said a bronze will be at least better than returning home empty-handed.

India missed a golden chance to enter the hockey final of the Olympics for the first time in 44 years as they went down 2-3 to Germany in a close last-four clash at the Games here.

India will now take on Spain in the bronze medal match, while Germany will be up against Netherlands in the final.

“This is extremely disappointing as we came here to win a gold medal. But, having said that, it’s better to go home with bronze than nothing,” Harmanpreet told Jio Cinema after the match.

“When you lose in the semifinal game, it’s not that easy to take as reaching the final is a dream of any athlete,” the captain added.

India goalkeeper Sreejesh, appearing in the last international tournament of an illustrious career, added, “It’s a heartbreaking loss for us. We had the chance to win gold, but now, we have to forget this semifinal and focus on the bronze medal match.”

India coach Craig Fulton also expressed his sadness following the defeat.

“We’re disappointed we could not get over the line. We played a great match, pushed very hard till the end,” he said.

Harmanpreet and Sreejesh both agreed that the team made a few mistakes that cost them in the end.

“We made a few errors in defence and we missed a few chances,” Harmanpreet, who put India ahead with his seventh minute strike, said.

Sreejesh said, “We can’t commit such silly mistakes during the match. We could not make an impact in the opponent’s half.”

The seasoned campaigner from Kerala played down the hype around him in his final outing with the national team.

“I think rather than my situation, the team is more important. Just forget about that and play the next game in a better way, bounce back in the next game,” Sreejesh said.

Both Sreejesh and Harmanpreet wished champion wrestler Vinesh Phogat luck ahead of her gold medal bout in the 50kg freestyle category on Thursday, and hoped that “she would do it tomorrow and make the country proud.”

The Indians started brightly and dominated the early exchanges, before the Germans regrouped themselves.

Harmanpreet (7th) and Sukhjeet Singh (36th) struck for India, while Gonzalo Peillat (18th), Christopher Ruhr (27th) and Marco Miltkau (54th) were the scorers for Germany.