Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 12 (ANI): The Indian Women’s Hockey Team have secured their place on the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026, however the hosts are removed from completed as they now flip their focus to successful the FIH Hockey World Cup Qualifiers 2026 Hyderabad, Telangana title.
India will face Italy within the semi-final as they appear to proceed their sturdy run in entrance of the house crowd, in accordance with a launch.
India completed on high of Pool B with seven factors from three matches and a superior objective distinction over Scotland, who additionally collected seven factors to complete second within the group. The hosts registered two wins and one draw within the pool stage.
India started their marketing campaign with a dominant 4-0 win in opposition to Uruguay. In their second match, they performed out a intently fought 2-2 draw in opposition to Scotland earlier than concluding the group stage with a convincing 4-1 victory over Wales.
With the resounding performances within the pool stage, India confirmed their qualification for the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 via the match rule, which awards a World Cup berth to the best world-ranked workforce ending fourth throughout the 2 qualifying occasions.
The Santiago leg of the qualifiers concluded earlier, the place Chile, Australia and Ireland secured the three direct qualification spots. Japan completed fourth in Santiago and are presently ranked No. 15 on the earth. With India ranked ninth globally, the hosts have at the very least ensured they’ll end because the highest-ranked fourth-placed workforce throughout the 2 tournaments, thereby confirming their ticket to the World Cup.
Having achieved certainly one of their main goals, India will now look to keep up their momentum and push for a spot within the Final after they tackle Italy, who completed second in Pool A with 4 factors after registering one win, one draw and one loss, giving the hosts a slight psychological edge forward of the semi-final.
India can even look to construct on the spectacular type of ahead Navneet Kaur, who’s presently the joint high scorer of the match with 4 targets. She produced a standout efficiency within the closing pool match in opposition to Wales, scoring an excellent hat-trick to cap off the group stage in model.
Italy, in the meantime, will depend on Federica Carta, who has been its key attacking risk and has scored three targets to date within the competitors.
In phrases of head-to-head encounters, India and Italy have confronted one another seven occasions since 2012.
India have received 5 of these matches, whereas Italy have registered one victory and one sport resulted in a draw, giving the hosts a slight psychological edge forward of the semi-final.
Speaking forward of the semi-final, the Indian workforce Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne stated, ‘Securing qualification for the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2026 is a vital milestone for this group, and the gamers deserve lots of credit score for the way in which they’ve carried out to date within the match. They have proven good self-discipline, composure and attacking intent all through the pool stage.’
‘At the identical time, our mindset may be very clear — we aren’t right here simply to qualify. We wish to maintain bettering with each match and purpose to win the match. The semi-final is one other huge problem and we’ll method it with full focus and depth.’
‘Italy are a aggressive facet and so they have proven on this match that they will hassle sturdy groups. For us, the main target can be on executing our plans nicely, sustaining our construction, and persevering with to play with the identical power and confidence.’
India will tackle Italy within the semi-final on thirteenth March at 7:30 PM IST. (ANI)