India's ended up with empty hands in the junior men's hockey World Cup as failed to get hands on a medal, losing 1-3 to Spain in the bronze medal playoff on Saturday, December 16.
Goals from Nicolas Alvarez (25th and 51st minute) and Petchame Pau (40th) sealed the deal in Spain's favour as Sunil Jojo's 28th-minute penalty-corner strike was the only saving grace for the two-time junior world champion Indians, whose perennial frailty with penalty corner conversions came to the fore yet again.
This was India's second defeat to Spain in this edition of the tournament, having lost against them by 1-4 in the league stage as well. India had also finished fourth in the last edition of the tournament in 2021 in Bhubaneswar.
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Spain, following the win against the Uttam Singh-led side, equalled their best outing in the global tournament, adding to the bronze they had won in the 2005 edition in Rotterdam which they won after beating India 6-5 on penalties.
Spain once again were clearly the dominant side of the two and it was the Indian goalkeeper Mohith Shashikumar who resisted his team's defeat by a bigger margin as he came up with some remarkable saves after half-time.
Mohith made brilliant back-to-back saves in the 33rd minute when the Spanish attackers easily got the better of the Indian defence. Mohith's fine anticipation saw him save two shots at the goal to keep the scoreline 1-1.
Alvarez opened the scoring for Spain in the 25th minute when he pulled away on the left flank all the way to the goalmouth before sending in a diagonal shot, which got deflected off the goalkeeper's gloves into the goal.
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Three minutes later, India managed to come up with the equaliser with Sunil Jojo scoring from the follow-up of a penalty corner. Jojo's quick anticipation saw him find the back of the net with a flick after the Spanish goalkeeper had saved the first attempt.
The Indian team once again struggled with their penalty corner conversions quite like the semifinal against Germany where they wasted a dozen of them in the 1-4 defeat, they also seemed to lack the will to go all out. Barring Jojo's 28th-minute conversion, the rest of the eight PC attempts went begging.
Spain's high-press game saw Petchame Pau again give his team the lead in the 40th minute, sending the ball past Mohith.
India's struggling defence had another setback with one more goal in the 51st minute when Cabre Verdiell's run on the left found Alvarez, who deflected the ball into the goal as Mohith drifted to the other corner.
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As the timer clicked away, there was desperation in the Indian camp, which resulted in a couple of collisions, leading to Petchame limping off three minutes before the final hooter and Pere Amat also seeking the team physio's help.
On the other hand, Germany, who finished runners-up in 2021, will play France in the summit clash.
(With Agency Inputs)