The three-time champions, India, thrashed Japan by 5-0 in the second semi-final of the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai 2023 to reach their fifth Final of the competition.
On Sunday (13 August), the hosts India will face Malaysia in the tournament final. In the first semi-final of the tournament, Malaysia crushed South Korea by 6-2 to record their first Asian Champions Trophy Final entry.
In the third-place game of the tournament, the semi-finals losers South Korea and Japan will fight for the bronze medals.
In the meantime, Pakistan settled the fifth position in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai 2023 after beating China by 6-1.
Brief match report: India vs Japan
Q1 (Final Scoreline): India 0 — Japan 0
In the second minute, the hosts India earned the only penalty corner in the quarter, but they couldn’t move the scoreboard in the opening 15 minutes.
Q2 (Final Scoreline): India 3 (Akashdeep Singh 19’; Harmanpreet Singh 23’; Mandeep Singh 30’) — Japan 0
India dominated in the second quarter, as they scored three goals to take full control of the game. In the 19th minute, Akashdeep Singh scored a field goal to open the scoreline for the home team.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh successfully utilised the penalty corner in the 23rd minute to make the scoreline 2-0 for India.
In the final minute of the half, Mandeep Singh added another for the hosts.
Half-time
Q3 (Final Scoreline): India 4 (Sumit 39’) — Japan 0
With a nice reverse-stick lob, Sumit scored India’s fourth goal in the 39th minute.
Q4 (Final Scoreline): India 5 (Selvam Karthi 51’) — Japan 0
In the 51st minute, Selvam Karthi put the last nail in Japan’s coffin with another field goal for the Indian team.
Other games of the day
(Fifth place match)
Pakistan 6 [Muhammad Ammad 10’ (FG), 52’ (PC); Muhammad Khan 11’ (PC), 12’ (PC); Abdul Shahid 15’ (FG); Abdul Rana 55’ (FG)] — China 1 [Benhai Chen 35’ (PC)]
(1st Semi-Final)
Malaysia 6 [Abu Kamal Azrai 3’ (FG); Najmi Jazlan 9’ (FG), 21’ (PC); Faizal Saari 19’ (PC); Shello Silverious 47’ (FG), 48’ (FG)] — South Korea 2 [Woo Cheon Ji 2’ (FG); Jonghyun Jang 14’ (PC)]
