India emerged victorious at the QNET 4th Asian Men’s Champions Trophy event thanks to a 3-2 triumph over Pakistan in Sunday’s competition final at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium in Kuantan, Malaysia.
Following an unbeaten run in the round-robin phase of the competition that included wins against Japan, Pakistan, China and Malaysia, India faced a semi-final meeting against a Korea team that had held them to a 1-1 draw earlier in the event.
It proved to be another close contest, with the match finishing locked at 2-2 before India snatched a 5-4 victory in the shoot-out. India scored all five of their attempts in the shoot-out, with Lee Daeyeol’s miss proving decisive for the team coached by Paul Lissek.
India’s opponents in the final were rivals Pakistan, a team ranked at 13 in the FIH Hero World Rankings, but famous for producing their best performances against the 6th ranked, eight times Olympic champions India.
The round-robin meeting between the two sides had finished with India taking a 3-2 win, a score-line that would be repeated in the gold medal match.
Second quarter strikes from Rupinder Pal Singh and Yousuf Affan gave Roelant Oltmans’ men a 2-0 lead, but Pakistan levelled things up thanks to goals from Muhammad Aleem Bilal and Ali Shan. India’s title deciding goal arrived nine minutes from the end, with Chandanda Thimmaiah firing home from open play to settle the contest.
“We were making mistakes but got away with it”, said ever-pragmatic India Head Coach Oltmans after the victory. “Nevertheless, this was a good win for India as the last time India won a major title was the Asian Games in 2014. The good thing is we got back on track and played to our game plan. The win today shows we are making progress.”
Pakistan’s coach Khawaja Junaid, congratulated India on the victory, describing it as an “excellent final” between the two nations.
“It was a great game, excellent indeed”, said Junaid. “We came back from two goals down to level 2-2 and were pushing for the shoot-out until India found the winning goal. But we kept pushing for the equaliser. It was a good game.”
In the bronze medal match, host nation Malaysia overcame Korea in a shoot-out after the match finished with the scores level at 1-1. It was the fourth time that Malaysia had claimed the bronze medal in the history of the competition.
Just as the men’s event was coming to a close, at the Sengkang Hockey Stadium in Singapore, the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy was just getting started.
The five nation event features Malaysia, China, India, Japan and Korea, with the event concluding on Saturday 5 November.
At the time of writing, India were sitting at the top of the standings with two wins and a draw from their opening three matches, with Japan in second place, three points behind but having played one game fewer. The two sides went head-to-head on the opening day of the competition in a match that finished in a 2-2 draw, with India following up that result with victories over Korea and Malaysia. Victory for Japan in their meeting with Malaysia on Wednesday 2 November would move them level on points with the Eves in the lead up to the classification phase.
More information about both events can be found on www.asiahockey.org.
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