New Delhi, 3 August 2013: India lost to defending champions The Netherlands 3-0 in a hard fought second semi-final of the Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup played at Monchengladbach, Germany on Friday.

The Junior Indian women team, who have registered their best ever performance in this tournament, fought bravely against the defending champions The Netherlands. The Netherlands scored through Lieke Van Wijk (17^th minute), Lisanne de lange (57^th minute) and Lisa Scheerlinck (68^th minute) to book their berth for the final against Argentina on Sunday.

India who began their campaign facing a 6-1 defeat from Australia, made a surprising comeback in the tournament by stunning New Zealand 2-0 in their next game. After that India easily overcame Russia 10-1 and booked berth in the quarter-final where they defeated Spain 4-2.

India will now take on England in the bronze medal match on Sunday.

Neil Hawgood, Coach of Team India said “We played very, very well today but we got a bit tired in the last ten minutes. Unfortunately we let in a soft goal, this was the 2-0. This match was a good lesson for my players. I think when the girls wake up tomorrow, they will be driven to win the bronze medal. Playing for bronze is the best they have done in their life so far”.

Skipper Sushila Chanu said “We are disappointed with today’s result. It was very hard to play under these weather conditions. England is a good team but we will try to beat them to win the bronze medal”.