Captain Harmanpreet Singh was in fine touch yet again, scoring twice to help India come from behind and beat Spain 2-1 to claim a second consecutive bronze medal at the Olympic hockey. Veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who was playing his career's final game, was also in good form in Paris on Thursday, coming up with some excellent saves.
The Indians recovered from the heart-wrenching 2-3 defeat to Germany in the semifinal and played positive hockey for most part of the match to come out trumps.
Harmanpreet scored in 30th, 33rd minutes of the game from penalty corners after Spain skipper Marc Miralles gave his side the lead against the run of play in the 18th minute from a penalty stroke.
The Indians regrouped themselves and showed their mental strength to claim another podium finish at the world's biggest sporting spectacle. This was after they broke a 41-year jinx by claiming a bronze in Tokyo three years ago.
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Sreejesh left his mark in the final game of his illustrious career that spanned 18 years. The Indians were the aggressors in the first quarter, dominating the early exchanges with precision, but Spain came back hard after the first 15 minutes.
Spain had nine penalty corners as against India's six of which the latter converted two.
Spain did have better share of possession but India were the more offensive side as they penetrated the Spanish defence regularly in the first 15 minutes.
They walked in with more purpose and intensity in the second quarter and pressed hard on the Indian goal.
