FIH Hockey Pro League 2025: India men's team beaten by Spain as women's team defeats England 3-2

Spain took sweet revenge for their defeat against India in the bronze-medal match at the Paris Olympics, overcoming Harmanpreet Singh’s side 3-1 in the FIH Men’s Pro League in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

India put up a lackluster show in their first Pro League match this season, even as Spain showed loads of determination with Borja Lacalle (28th), Ignacio Cobos (38th) and Bruno Avila (56th) slotting home the goals after the hosts had taken the lead in the 25th minute through Sukhjeet Singh.

The first quarter was all about gauging one another’s strengths. Barring a run by Abhishek, who managed to create a chance for Lalit Upadhyay, the Spanish goalkeeper was hardly tested.

India goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur too was rarely tested with the ball just hitting the far post and getting deflected, that too from outside the striking circle.

India brought in keeper Suraj Karkera in the second quarter, and he was called into action almost immediately. He did well to thwart Spain from scoring the opening goal following a good move from the right.

Sukhjeet opened the scoring for the hosts in the 25th minute following a speedy run and circle penetration from the right by Jarmanpreet Singh. The defender relayed the ball to Sukhjeet, who failed to trap it cleanly in his first attempt, but recovered well to send a powerful reverse-hit flying past the Spanish goalkeeper.

Three minutes later, Spain slotted home the equaliser. The rival team forwards prised open the Indian defence with a couple of passes inside the circle before Borja Lacalle, at the far post, tapped the ball in.

With India lacking cohesion upfront and a defensive strategy, Ignacio doubled the lead in the third quarter.

Spain were awarded a penalty corner but a poor trap from Borja saw him let the ball through. He, however, rushed back to take the ball in control and relayed it to Cobos inside the circle, who made no mistake in putting it in.

Spain looked clearly the better side as India conceded multiple penalty corners in the third and fourth quarters.

The 2-1 lead gave Spain momentum going into the last quarter, while India’s woes with penalty-corner conversion continued.

The European side piled more misery on the hosts when Harmanpreet tried to get an aerial pass from Spain under control and ended up conceding a penalty corner.

Bruno Avila then slotted home his maiden international goal with a powerful drag flick.

India would be disappointed with the result but will look to bounce back on Sunday when they take on Spain in the double header.

India women prevail over England 3-2

A confident India began their campaign in the Women’s Pro League with a 3-2 win against higher-ranked England at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium.

Two of India’s goals came from penalty corners with Vaishnavi Phalke scoring the opener in the sixth minute and Deepika smashing the winner in the 25th, while Navneet Kaur smashed the winning goal with just one minute left in the game.

For England, Darcy Bourne took advantage of a huge defensive lapse to slot home the first equaliser in the 12th minute and then Fiona Crackles (58th) levelled things again before Navneet slotted home the winner a minute later.

Vaishnavi opened the account from India, ranked ninth in the FIH, after a firmly-struck shot from Manisha Chauhan off the first penalty corner hit a defender’s stick and came back into play.

Vaishnavi was perfectly placed to decisively hit the ball into the net.

India looked confident and showed the intent to ruffle the seventh-ranked England with pace and short passes.

They came close to doubling the lead in the ninth minute but veteran forward Lalremsiami failed to connect her stick with a long, diagonal cross.

However, quite against the run of play, England struck when a sloppy clearance by defender Ishika Chaudhary saw Darcy just push the ball straight into the goal from close to bring the equaliser.

A minute later, goalkeeper Savita Punia bravely saved a firmly-hit reverse flick from crashing into the net with just two minutes in the first quarter, leaving India coach Harendra Singh in a sport of bother.

A pep-talk from the former India player at the break, saw India settle into a rhythm and enter the turf with more purpose as Deepika converted the hosts’ second penalty corner with a rasping shot to give her team the lead again.

The third quarter was a sedate affair with the play mostly confined to the midfield, but England showed tremendous improvement in the last 15 minutes, earning three quick penalty corners to rattle the Indian defence.

But wayward shooting saw the 2022 Commonwealth Games champions ending up on the losing side.

Fiona made it 2-2 with just two minutes remaining on the clock as the game headed towards a draw but Navneet came up with a goal on the counter-attack to lead India to victory.