Argentine Juan Pablo Hourquebie gets past India’s Viren Rasquinha during their pool B clash in Athens on Monday. The match ended 2-2. (AP)

Athens: Finally, the Indian hockey team gets down to business. The group matches have been taken care of, India finished fourth in pool B and moved out of the running for a semi-final berth, but then, all that was expected. The minor placement matches are what the Athens Olympic Games were all about.

So what’s the target when India take on Pakistan in the fifth to eighth place fight on Wednesday? The Champions Trophy? Chief coach Gerhard Rach doesn’t feel that way.

“Why? Did we come here to play for the Champions Trophy? We are in the Olympics,” he reminded this correspondent. Very good, but as it is evident now, we are out of the running for even a steel medal, if there was one.

Change that delicate subject and come to the Argentina match of Tuesday. “We were lucky… we would have been somewhere else had luck been with us earlier,” Rach said. “But Pakistan will be tough, pretty pepped up after their 8-2 hammering of Britain.”

Sure, but how many Indians are match-worthy? “There are injuries, but we will be able to field almost all our players versus Pakistan,” Rach said.

On the last day of preliminaries New Zealand beat South Africa 4-1, Spain beat Egypt 3-0, Pakistan won big, Korea and Germany drew 2-2, Holland beat Australia 2-1 and India-Argentina played out a 2-2 draw. That left Holland atop pool B, followed by Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Argentina.

Back to the petty matches, and this India-Pakistan match in particular. “It will be an emotional game for sure.” Attribute that quote to both Gerhard Rach and Dhanraj Pillay, ditto. The feeling is the same everywhere in the Indian camp. The other feeling that resounds is “tough match.”

Deepak Thakur has “recovered fully”, say all. He will be in the squad. Dilip Tirkey got a direct hit on his hand on Tuesday, but that’s “also okay”, and so will goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza, who took a hit in the same match.

“The problem with Pakistan, of course, is Sohail Abbas,” Pillay said. “He is the man to watch.”

Rach, though, said: “India are converting a very high percentage of penalty corners today. Maybe India are better than Pakistan in that, but we must move into the circle and force those penalty corners.”

Considering the doubts that Pakistan came in with to these Games, they have performed exceedingly well. They lost to Germany 1-2, beat Egypt 7-0, beat Korea 2-0, lost to Spain 0-4 and beat Britain 8-2.

India have presented a weak force. They lost to Holland 1-3, beat South Africa 4-2, lost to Australia 3-4, lost to New Zealand 1-2 and then drew 2-2 with Argentina. Sohail is second on the scorers’ list with seven goals (after Korean Jung Seon Lee’s nine), while the highest Indian scorer is Gagan Ajit Singh with five.

Rach said, yet again, that the main problem with the Indian team would be on two fronts — to keep the defence going strong and to move into the attack quickly.

“We cannot take chances. It is a long rivalry, and we will fight to the last. It’s a tradition thing, you know,” reminded Dhanraj.

The match won’t decide any medal. But the interest in the game, as soon as it was evident on Tuesday, has soared. Athens-based Indians and Pakistanis are out on the hunt for a ticket. Problem is, though the many seats in the stands are going empty, tickets seem to have been sold out in advance. Those who bought, obviously have lost interest thereafter.