India finish eighth after Belgium win a 4-3 World Cup shootout

India left the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup in eighth place after a 4-3 shootout defeat to co-host Belgium at the Belfius Hockey Arena in Wavre on Friday. The match finished 3-3 in sixty minutes. Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored the last of those goals from a penalty corner with 26 seconds on the clock. He ended the tournament with eight goals, level with Argentina's Tomás Domene for the scoring lead with one day still to play.

Abhishek Nain put India ahead in the sixth minute. Belgium answered in a two-minute burst: Roman Duvekot in the 22nd minute and Hugo Labouchere from a penalty corner a minute later. Harmanpreet levelled at 2-2 in the 31st. Early in the fourth quarter Manpreet Singh was hit in the face by a close-range Labouchere shot and left the field bleeding. The home crowd applauded him off. Belgium then scored through Nicolas de Kerpel, listed in some reports at the 46th minute and in others at the 47th, to lead 3-2.

India chased. The late corner fell to Harmanpreet. He beat Vincent Vanasch and forced the shootout. In the one-on-ones Vanasch stopped Harmanpreet and Sukhjeet Singh. Shilanand Lakra, Dilpreet Singh and Abhishek scored for India. Tom Boon, Arthur de Sloover and Alexander Hendrickx, the last from a penalty stroke, scored for Belgium. Duvekot took the last attempt. Indian goalkeeper Mohith HS asked for a referral on a back-stick. The on-field call stood. Belgium took seventh place on home turf.

The result closes a World Cup in which India did not beat a side ranked above them. The women's team, playing the same week in Amstelveen, finished fifth after a 3-1 win over Germany, their best World Cup placing since 1974. The two campaigns will be read together in Indian hockey offices next week: a young women's group that lost only once, and a men's side that needed a last-second corner to avoid a regulation defeat to the co-host and still went home eighth.

Harmanpreet's eight goals are the clean stat. He scored in open play and from the corner, and he missed when the match shrank to a keeper and a ball. Manpreet's bloody exit is the other image that will travel. The midfielder has been the team's ballast for a decade. A facial injury in a classification match is a cheap way to end a tournament.

India now turn to the next window on the FIH calendar. Eighth is not a ranking disaster on its own. It is a poor return for a side that arrived with a captain in scoring form and a midfield that has been to an Olympic final. The tape of the last 26 seconds, and of the shootout that followed, will decide how hard the staff is judged.