India Crash Out Of Hockey World Cup Semi-Final Race After 3-5 Loss To Argentina
Amstelveen: India’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2026 came to a disappointing end after Argentina defeated them 5-3 in their final Pool E match at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen.
India needed a strong result to keep their semi-final hopes alive, but Argentina came out firing and put the Indian defence under pressure almost immediately.
Joaquin Toscani opened the scoring just 39 seconds into the match before Nicolas Della Torre doubled Argentina’s advantage in the sixth minute. India managed to respond through Sukhjeet Singh, who pulled one back in the 10th minute to give his side some hope.
However, Argentina regained control after the break. Tomas Domene scored twice in the third quarter, including a penalty-stroke conversion, to put Argentina firmly in command. Lucas Toscani then added another goal in the fourth quarter to make it 5-1.
India refused to give up and produced a late fightback. Sukhjeet Singh scored his second goal of the match in the 58th minute before Hardik Singh converted a penalty stroke in the final minute.
The late surge, however, came too late to change the outcome.
The 5-3 defeat ended India’s semi-final ambitions and left them at the bottom of Pool E. Argentina moved to six points and remained in contention for a place in the last four, with their qualification dependent on the result of the Netherlands-England clash.
For India, the World Cup campaign will now continue with a 7th-8th place classification match against co-hosts Belgium on Friday, August 28.
Despite the disappointing result, Sukhjeet’s brace and Hardik Singh’s late penalty gave India something to take away from a match in which Argentina’s fast start and clinical finishing proved decisive.
India’s wait for another men’s Hockey World Cup semi-final appearance therefore continues, with the team now looking to finish the tournament strongly in their final classification match.
News Source : Information for this article was gathered from a variety of reliable news outlets.
