Asian Champions Trophy: India Beat Korea By 3-1

• By Thetripurapost Desk, Hlunbuir
• Sep 12, 2024
• 392

Skipper Harmanpreet Singh scored twice as defending champions India beat Korea 3-1 on Thursday to register their fourth consecutive win in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy. 

Paris Olympics bronze medallists India had defeated China 3-0, Japan 5-0 and Malaysia 8-1. Already in the semi-finals, the Indian team will now play against Pakistan in their last league match on Saturday. 

The top four teams in the six-team tournament will qualify for the semi-finals which will be played on Monday while the final will be played on Tuesday.

India maintained its excellent form and took a two-goal lead in the first quarter itself. Arijit Singh Hundal, who scored two goals against Malaysia, scored the first goal in the 8th minute. After this, Harmanpreet, who is considered one of the best drag flickers in the world, converted two penalty corners in the 9th and 43rd minutes. The only goal for Korea was scored by Jihun Yang on a penalty corner in the 30th minute. 

India once again started aggressively and Arijit scored the first goal on Sukhjeet Singh's pass.

A minute later, Rajkumar Pal, who scored a hat-trick against Malaysia, got India a penalty corner on which Harmanpreet scored. 

India's reserve goalkeeper Suraj Karkera performed effectively and did not let Korea score a goal in the second quarter. In the second quarter, Korea made several attacks on the Indian goal and in the last minute Yang scored a goal on a penalty corner. 

Korea got two consecutive penalty corners in the 35th minute but the Indian defense was ready. India got a second penalty corner two minutes later but could not score a goal. Harmanpreet scored a goal on a penalty corner in the 43rd minute to increase India's lead to 3-1. 

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Harmanpreet Singh missed a penalty corner but the Korean team could not score on it.