Lucknow: India will take on Belgium in the final of Men`s Junior Hockey World Cup in Lucknow today. India defeated Australia 4-2 on penalties to book a place in the finals. This is India’s third entry into the final of the Junior World Cup after having finished runners-up in 1997.
The Under-21 Indian Hockey players will look to showcase their best and leave nothing to chance to win the mega event for the second time. India had earlier won the trophy way back in 2001 in Hobart, Australia.
India's road to final hasn't been as easy as they did not start the tournament as title favourites but won their group matches easily by defeating Canada 4-0, England 5-3. Their real challenge started with match against South Africa 1-2, than Spain tested their nerves in quarter-finals which they won 2-1, and finally they managed to beat Australia in the penalty shoot-out.
On the other hand Belgium too didn't look very promising in the tournament, they also started their campaign by winning all their group matches defeating Egypt (4-0), Netherlands (3-2) and Malaysia (3-0) .
In quarter-finals and semi-finals they didn't manage to score the goal and the game against Germany and Argentina were decided by penalty shoot-outs.
This is the first time Belgium has made their way into the finals of junior hockey world cup they too will not be taking the match easily. India have already won the World Cup in 2001 at Hobart, Australia and they will be looking to end this 15 years of drought today.
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