Bhubaneswar, Feb 5 (IANS): The World No.8 Spain men's hockey team reached India on Monday ahead of their FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24 matches. The Spani squad led by Marc Miralles landed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar, Odisha and will play matches at the Kalinga Stadium and Rourkela as part of this leg of matches.

The FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24 (Men) is scheduled to take place at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar from February 10 to February 16, before moving to the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, where the league will continue from February 19 to 25.

Five national teams -– Ireland, The Netherlands, India, Spain and Australia -– will participate in the India leg of the FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24 (Men), facing each other once in Bhubaneswar and once in Rourkela.

Spain will play their first match of the FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24 (Men) on February 10 against hosts India, followed by a contest against Australia, on the next day. They will then take on the Netherlands, the World No.1 ranked team, on Feb 13 and Ireland on Feb 15 in their final fixture in the Bhubaneswar leg before heading to Rourkela.

When asked about the importance of the tournament after having landed in Bhubaneswar, Spain’s captain Marc Miralles said, “It is a crucial tournament for us. We just qualified for the Olympics a couple of weeks ago. It’s important for us to play our eight games really well to have as many points as possible."

When asked about the toughest side, Miralles said, “We played a really tough game against Ireland in the Olympic qualifiers. The Netherlands are the defending champions, and India is playing at home, so I think we’re going to have some fun games.”

He signed off by saying, "We are in good shape having played the Olympic qualifiers recently. We’ve trained well in the gym and are ready for the challenge."