On a day when Neeraj Chopra and Vinesh Phogat kept the Indian flag flying high at the Paris Olympics, the men’s hockey team lost a valiant fight to make it a spectacular day for the country.

India missed a golden chance to enter the hockey final at the Olympics for the first time in 44 years as they went down 2-3 to Germany. The scoreline is an indication of how close the match was. In fact, the margin was so narrow that the Indian players almost collapsed to the ground after the heartbreaking loss.

Had the Harmanpreet Singh-led side come out winners on Tuesday, they would have played their first final since the 1980 Games.

But all is not lost yet. India, bronze winners in Tokyo in the last edition of the Games, still have a chance of returning from Paris with a hockey medal as they will now cross sticks with Spain in the bronze-medal playoff.

On Tuesday, India started brightly and dominated the early exchanges, before the Germans regrouped themselves. A decisive goal in the fourth and final quarter dashed India’s hopes.

Skipper Harmanpreet Singh (7th) and Sukhjeet Singh (36th) struck for India, while Gonzalo Peillat (18th), Christopher Ruhr (27th) and Marco Miltkau (54th) were the scorers for Germany.

Germany will be up against the Netherlands in the gold-medal contest. The Dutch blanked Spain 4-0 in the other semi-final.

India took the lead through Harmanpreet. But the Germans came back strongly to make it 2-1 in the second quarter. India hit back with a smart equaliser from Sukhjeet.

But just six minutes from the final hooter, Germany scored the winner when Miltkau deflected in a cross to break Indian hearts.

India had their chances, they earned as many as 11 penalty corners, but converted just one. They paid a heavy price for that. One hopes they will be sharper against Spain.