Victorious coach Roelant Oltmans said that self-belief and appropriate changes in the strategy worked for the success today in the match against Netherlands.

India posted a famous 3-1 win over World Cup silver medallist today

On asked whether he and the team thought of winning today’s match against the popular belief that the team will lose.

“If I thought a team was not beatable, I would not have been here as the coach of the team”, the Dutch legend retorted.

“Prior to this match, there was a general perception that we would lose today. Hockey is game where we every team plays for 60 minutes to win’, he explained.

The main worry before the match was impact making player Brendra Lakra’s injry and subsequent absence in today’s line up. But Oltmans claims the team made suitable strategy to nullify the effect.

“Since Birender is injured and didn’t play, we had to make changes. I also made some changes in the fourth quarter when the team was playing on field.”

Roelant Oltamns is of the opinion that the team played well in the first two matches also, but the outcome was not there due to minor lapses. He also felt luck was not with the team in the first two matches

“If we look at the statistics, we played better in the previous matches also in terms of the ball possession and penalty corners. You know a bit of luck is also required and we had that luck today.”

“One of the positives of the match is that we conceded goal after two minutes rather than a minute.” said for humour.

Oltmans gave emphasis to fourth quarter, and credited the team for adhering to the plan

“Second would be we played much better in the fourth quarter. But again, we scooped the ball aimlessly and it cost us the second goal.”