India will take on Canada in their final Pool C match of the 2018 FIH Men's Hockey World Cup. The hosts will target a big win to make sure they qualify for the quarter-finals directly.
As things stand now after the end of the second round, India are at the top of the table thanks to a better goal difference, ahead of Olympic silver medallists Belgium.
Belgium, playing South Africa in the final pool match, can challenge India's +5 goal difference. India scored five against the African champions. So India need another big win.
India are the favourites against Canada, but it will no be an easy outing for India. Canadians have a tenacity of testing India's might. India, ranked fifth in the world, are in good form, but Canada, as they have shown in the past, can still shock India.
Canada have given India problems in the past, the most recent being in last year's Hockey World League Semi-Finals in London where they defeated India 3-2 to finish fifth.
If that was not enough, in the 2016 Rio Olympics too, India were held to a 2-2 draw by the Canadians.
All You Need To Know Abou The Match:
Match: India vs Canada, Pool C Match
Date: December 8 (Saturday)
Time: 7:00 PM (IST)
Venue: The Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
TV Guide: Star Sports Network; Canada - BeIN Sport
Live Streaming: FIH official YouTube channel, Hotstar
Squads:
India: PR Sreejesh, Krishna Bahadur Pathak, Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra, Varun Kumar, Kothajit Khadangbam, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh (c), Chinglensana Kangujam, Shanglakpam Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Sumit, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay and Simranjeet Singh.
Canada: Brandon Pereira, Scott Tupper (c), Gabriel Ho-Garcia, Oliver Scholfield, Richard Hildreth, Keegan Pereira, Balraj Panesar, Gordon Johnston, Brenden Bissett, James Wallace, Matthew Pearson, Matthew Sarmento, John Smythe, Iain Smythe, James Kirkpatrick, Sukhi Panesar, David Carter, Antoni Kindler
