I must confess that I am as relieved as any other Indian after our team qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics, here in Madrid, today. We thus accomplished our mission and I think, in the remaining two matches, our players will be free of the pressure and play much better.

Yes, it was a bit tight in the end when we beat Canada 6-4, but then, in this tournament, there have been very few matches that were one-sided.

As I have been maintaining all along, the pressure of having to qualify for the Olympics was quite intense and our players were far too anxious. Hence, we tended to commit mistakes that allowed our opponents to come back into the match.

Looking back, the two points we dropped against Belgium when we drew 1-1 on the first day, really hurt us. I would say that it put our team under far greater pressure, and when we lost 3-5 to Pakistan, it was much worse. But having said that, we must admit that Belgium is not a minnow. Today they defeated Malaysia who only the otherday drew Pakistan. My view on world hockey has always been consistant. There are no weak team on synthetic turf era. The team that plays better on a particular day will corner the glory.

However, after our Belgium and Pakistan match, I was quite confident that we will eventually come through, for the team is full of talent and I knew that if we play to our potential, then we can complete our job of qualifying for Athens.

Today, we were looking to win by about three to four-goal margin, and in this context, everything went according to plan when we took a 5-0 lead. Like I said earlier, at this stage, our players somehow slipped up and after the Canadians scored a couple of goals, the pressure was doubled on our team.

On Monday too, our team was under pressure against New Zealand. It was a very tough match as the 2-0 scoreline indicates. But at the end of the day, it was more important that we picked up three points and took a big step forward in our bid to qualify for the Olympics.

This qualifying tournament is an extremely high-pressure competition. My boys were worried that if we fail to qualify then, it would be the first time we will not be in the Olympics. But these negative thoughts have now been dispelled and I am extremely pleased at having confirmed our berth in the Olympics.

We now have two more matches, beginning with semifinals on Thursday. It does not matter now whom we play, because the pressure is totally off our shoulders. I am quite certain that our team will now play more freely.