Coach valentin alterburg

FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers: Pushed to the brink by their defeat to the United States in their opening match, the Indian women's hockey team goes into the semifinal against Germany with a lot of confidence in the Women's FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers here on Thursday.

The next league match against New Zealand was a real pressure cooker situation for India and a do-or-die clash as defeat would have ended their hopes in the tournament and could have made heads toll. The team survived that as it came up with a brilliant comeback to beat the Black Sticks 3-1.

They capitalised on that second breath to outplay Italy 5-1 and sealed a place in the semifinals.