Tokyo Olympics / India lose women's hockey semi to Argentina, to play for Olympics bronze on Friday

Tokyo: The Indian women's hockey team put up a fantastic display of skill and tenacity during their semifinal encounter against World No. 5 Argentina at the Tokyo Games on Wednesday.

However, in the end, Indian women emerge second best. India goes down fighting 1-2 to Argentina.

Noel Barrionuevo, the Argentina skipper, scored her second goal today to put them ahead against India in the women's hockey semi-final match. Indian women's team took an early lead in the first quarter thanks to a penalty corner.

Earlier on Monday, the Indian women's hockey team created history at Oi Hockey Stadium -- North Pitch -- as they qualified for the semi-finals of the Olympics for the very first time after defeating Australia 1-0.

Argentina defeated Germany 3-0 in their quarter-final earlier on Monday.

India played seven matches there the first two against the Argentine youth team which the visitors drew 2-2 and 1-1. India then played two matches against Argentina's B team and lost both 1-2 and 2-3 respectively.

Against Argentina senior side, India played three games, managing a 1-1 draw and losing 0-2 and 2-3 respectively.

India captain Rani had on Tuesday said that the win over Australia is a thing of the past and their focus is on the remaining two games in the competition.

“We made history by just reaching the semifinals and now we are looking forward to the semifinals, because we don't want to just finish here," Rani had said. “In this tournament there's two more games left for winning medals," she said.