At the Moqi Hockey Training Base in China on Tuesday, Pakistan’s hockey team completed a comeback against South Korea, earning third place in the Asian Champions Trophy.
In thrilling events yesterday, hosts China overcame Pakistan in a penalty shootout to advance to their first-ever Asian Champions Trophy final.
In front of a boisterous home crowd, China defeated India 2-0 in shootout after a 1-1 draw in regulation time. Their players surrounded goalie Caiyu Wang, who stopped Pakistan from advancing to Tuesday’s final versus India.
India advanced to the final, which would be contested today, after crushing South Korea 4-1 in the other last-four match.
Pakistan trailed the third-place tie from the beginning, but two braces from Sufyan Khan and Hannan Shahid enabled the team win 5-2.
Pakistan was scoreless in the first half of the game until Korea’s captain Lee Jungjun scored from a penalty corner at the start of the second quarter.
In the third quarter, Khan and Shahid gave the team the lead, scoring the first two goals in less than a minute. But, the Koreans quickly responded with an equalizer.
Then, Haroon restored Pakistan’s lead with the fourth goal of the quarter.
In the game’s fourth quarter, Khan and Shahid added two more goals to separate themselves from the Korean team.
Sufyan finished the competition with four goals, winning Player of the Match for his two goals from penalty corners.
