Dominant India storms into the final

India marched towards its sixth Asian Champions Trophy title in seven finals with a 8-1 thumping of Korea in the semifinal at the Olympian Balbir Singh International Stadium here on Wednesday.

Up next would be Japan on Thursday in the first-ever final between the two sides in the competition after the latter upset Malaysia for the second time running via the shoot-out.

The scoreline was different but the domination that the host displayed in its final league match two days ago in Jalandhar against the same opponent was not.

India began with a bang and kept the foot on the pedal all through, barring a small period in the third quarter that was not as productive in terms of goals as the others. The Koreans, in a transition phase with mostly youngsters and just five members from the side that played the recent Asian Games, tried their best to match the Indians but it was soon evident that the gap was too huge to break a seven-year losing streak.

A fourth-minute goal lifted into the net by Shilanand Lakra set the ball rolling and then the goals kept coming at regular intervals. Han Sangjun levelled five minutes later that was the only time Korea surprised India with a sudden burst of pace and acceleration. By the end of first quarter, India was up 3-1 that became 6-1 at half time.

The pace dropped a notch after break but there was never any danger of Korea bouncing back, India was always in control. A couple of close chances towards the end of the third quarter were parried by desperate defending from Korea, goalkeeper Kim Jaehyeon pulling off some impressive saves to minimise the damage.

Earlier, Japan entered its third ACT final and the first since 2021 with a second consecutive win against higher-ranked Malaysia, this time in a shoot-out after being goalless in regulation time. With an airtight defence and stand-out performance from goalkeeper Takumi Kitagawa, Japan frustrated the Malaysian forwards despite repeated attempts and five penalty corners. Japan’s lone PC in the 57th minute saw them come agonisingly close to break the deadlock, captain Raiki Fujishima’s shot rebounding off the post.

The results: Semifinals: Japan 0 drew with Malaysia 0; Japan won the shoot-out 5-3; India 8 (Shilanand Lakra 4, 13 pc, Harmanpreet Singh 10, Sukhjeet Singh 21, Dilpreet Singh 21, 25, Angad Bir Singh 36, Vivek Sagar Prasad 54) bt Korea 1 (Han Sangjun 8); 5th-6th place: China 3 (Yulai Zhao 10, Yaqi Wang 18, Chen Chongcong 22-ps) bt Bangladesh 1 (Md. Shohanur Rahman 48 pc).