- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA, who faced a shocking defeat to Japan in the semi-final of the Men’s Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Tuesday (21), redeemed some pride a day later when they beat arch-rivals Pakistan 4-3 to pick the bronze medal.
India played outstanding hockey in the league stage where they won three out of four games and drew one. However, within two days of hammering Japan 6-0 in the final league match, the Olympic bronze-medallists lost to the same opposition 3-5 to crash out of the race for the gold.
Pakistan lost to South Korea 5-6 in another semi-final.
Manpreet Singh’s boys took the lead in the opening stage of the match but Pakistan soon drew level. They then went up by a goal but India bounced back in the final quarter and registered a thrilling win. It was India’s second victory over Pakistan in the tournament. They had beaten them 3-1 in the league stage. Manpreet Singh was adjudged the player of the match.
Both India and Pakistan were announced joint champions in the 2018 edition of the tournament as the final was cancelled due to heavy rain.
