The Indian men’s hockey team played their hearts out to win their first Olympics medal since the 1980 Games in Moscow. The men in blue defeated European powerhouses Germany 5-4 in their bronze medal match in Tokyo on Thursday.

The Germans made the most of Indian defensive errors in the first half to take a 1-3 lead in the second quarter. But India fought back through twin strikes on either side of the half-time whistle to put their noses well in front.

Two successful penalty corners followed a penalty stroke and a field goal for Manpreet Singh & co. Germany pulled a goal back in a hard-fought final quarter but the Indian defence held firm to maintain their slender advantage.

This was the Indian men’s hockey team’s first Olympic medal in 41 years, furthering a rich legacy of eight golds, one silver and two bronzes before this year.

India had an eventful run up to this point, having recovered from a 7-1 loss to Australia in the league stage. They bettered Great Britain in the quarter finals but couldn’t get past the Dutch in the semis.

A third place was still up for grabs, but Germany were the favourites coming into the bronze medal match. Once again, veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh proved to be the most crucial performers on the day making nine saves, including one off a German PC in the last seconds of the game.

This was India’s fourth official medal at the Tokyo Olympics after one weightlifting silver and a bronze each in boxing and badminton. India abs also guaranteed another silver medal after Ravi Dahiya made it to the 57kg freestyle wrestling final on Wednesday.

The Indian women’s hockey team is also set to contest for the bronze medal on Friday. They will face Great Britain at 7am IST. Watch this space for more.

Image: Twitter/HockeyIndia