Agency :
Argentina’s players hugged each other and cried after reaching the women’s hockey final at the Tokyo Olympics with a 2-1 win over India on Wednesday,
Argentina will face the Netherlands in Friday’s final, while India, who had hoped to play the gold-medal match for the first time in history, will battle Britain for bronze.
Argentina conceded a second-minute goal when India’s Gurjit Kaur flicked the ball into the goal off a penalty corner.
Las Leonas equalised halfway through the first half when captain Maria Barrionuevo also scored off a penalty corner. The 37-year-old, Argentina’s oldest player, settled the match six minutes into the second half.
In the other semi-final, the Netherlands notched up a convincing 5-1 victory over 2016 Rio Olympic champions Britain.
The Netherlands took the lead in the first half when Laurien Leurink outsmarted her opponent and her pass reached 21-year-old forward Felice Albers who shot the ball through the legs of British goalie Madeleine Hinch.
The Netherlands, who won silver in Rio after taking home the top prize at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, doubled the score less than a minute later through a powerful shot by Marloes Keetels.
“We’re executing everything that was agreed on with the team,” said Keetels, who also played a key role in the first goal by getting the ball to Leurink with a long pass.
“We trained for five years on being able to score many goals… I think that’s paying off now.”
The Netherlands had already scored 21 goals before starting the semi-finals while conceding only two.
After the halftime break, the Netherlands extended their lead to 4-0 with goals by Maria Verschoor and Albers.
Britain had beaten the Dutch in a penalty shootout in the Rio final but, here, the gap between the two sides was too large for the British to overcome, though they got a goal back when Giselle Ansley flicked in a penalty corner before Frederique Matla made it 5-1 for the Netherlands.
“I think we had a couple of lapses in the second quarter early on which gave them two pretty easy goals,” Ansley said.
