Need to tighten our defence: Raghunath

Bhubaneswar, Dec 8

Trying to recover from two successive defeats, India have shifted their focus to the quarter-finals of the Hero Hockey Champions Trophy at the Kalinga Stadium here.

“We are preparing towards the quarters. I am sure that the knock out match will be totally different from the league matches. We made some mistakes in the league phases,” defender VR Raghunath said ahead of their final league game against the Olympic and World Cup silver medallists the Netherlands.

India lost 0-1 to Olympic champions Germany in the first match before going down 2-4 to World Cup bronze medallists Argentina.

He said they have ratified their mistakes committed in the last two matches that dragged them to the bottom of the Pool B points table.

“At present we can’t say whom we are going to face in the quarters. We are ready to face any opponent. We have enormous fitness and potential to put up a good show,” the senior penalty corner specialist said.

The Roelant Oltmans-coached team had an extensive meeting Monday to decide the strategies to be adopted in the coming matches.

“Our defence was lagging in last two matches. We need to tighten our defence,” the 26-year-old Raghunath said. (IANS)