All teams will give us tough fight: Manpreet

Indian hockey captain Manpreet Singh Tuesday said his side would expect tough fight from all the participating countries in the FIH Men's Series Finals which begins Thursday.

Manpreet, who is leading the highest ranked team in the tournament, said the players worked on various aspects of their game ahead of the tournament.

"We are ready for the tournament and expect every team to give a good fight as all of us are eyeing the Olympics," Manpreet said at the captains' press conference here.

"After our Australia tour, when we assessed our performance we collectively felt that our finishing needed improvement. The past three weeks in Bhubaneswar has been very important for us in terms of getting these aspects right. We have also been working on different variations in penalty corners having three good dragflickers on our side."
The team's goalkeeper Mateusz Popiolkowski said, "It was 19 years ago since we last played at the Olympics and definitely we want to play in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But for now our aim is do well in the group stage and make it to the knockouts. That's our immediate goal and we will try to play our best hockey."