India and Pakistan have qualified for the Gold medal match at the 1st Men's Asian Champions Trophy tournament which is currently taking place in Ordos, China. The women’s finalists were confirmed on Thursday, as China and Korea maintained their excellent form.
Men’s tournament – India & Pakistan set up mouth-watering final.
India will face arch rivals Pakistan in the final of the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament after the two teams battled to a 2-2 draw in the first match of the day on Friday.
India showed exactly why they remain the only unbeaten team in the tournament by staging a superb fight-back to hold the Asian Games champion.
All of the goals came in the second half of the match, with Pakistan storming into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Muhammad Waqas and Muhammad Irfan. However, Rupinder Pal Singh reduced the deficit with a 46th minute penalty corner before Danish Mujtaba found the equalizer with just over 15 minutes of the match remaining.
The result was good enough to secure Pakistan’s safe passage through to Sunday’s tournament final, while India were forced to wait for the outcome of the remaining two matches to know their fate.
Korea were denied the chance of reaching the final when they were held to a surprising 1-1 draw by bottom-of-the-table China, while Japan saw their hopes dashed when Malaysia overcame a two-goal deficit to snatch a 3-2 win.
Friday’s results mean that Korea will play China in the 5th-6th classification match on Sunday, with Malaysia and Japan going head to head for the bronze medal before India and Pakistan contest the Gold medal match.
Women’s tournament – China and Korea going for gold
Host nation China and the ever-dangerous Korea have been the two dominant forces in the 2nd Women’s Asian Champions Trophy, and both continued their rich vein of form on Thursday. China produced a thumping 4-0 win against the luckless India, with 2010 FIH Young Player of the Year Zhao Yudiao and penalty corner expert Ma Yibo both scoring twice in the rout.
Although Korea had defeated Japan 1-0 earlier in the day thanks to a penalty corner flick from Seul Ki Cheon, the margin of the China victory proved to be enough to guarantee the home favourites top spot in the standings on goal difference. China and Korea will now face each other on Sunday in the Gold medal game, while India and Japan play for Bronze on Saturday.
Results and tables from the tournament can be found below. A full report of the weekend’s matches will be posted on the FIH website on Monday.
Asian Champions Trophy 2011
Tournament Fixtures & Results - 9 September 2011
3rd September 2011
Match No Fixture Result
M01 Korea v Japan 3-2 (2-1)
M02 India v China 5-0 (2-0)
M03 Pakistan v Malaysia 3-2 (2-2)
4th September 2011
W01 China v Japan 3-0 (3-0)
W02 Korea v India 4-1 (1-0)
M04 Japan v India 1-1 (0-1)
M05 Korea v Malaysia 4-3 (1-2)
M06 Pakistan v China 4-1 (1-1)
5th September 2011
Rest Day
6th September 2011
W03 Korea v China 2-2 (1-0)
W04 Japan vIndia 5-0 (2-0)
M07 China v Malaysia 2-4 (2-2)
M08 Japan v Pakistan 3-1 (1-1)
M09 India v Korea 5-3 (4-2)
7th September 2011
M10 Malaysia v India 2-2 (2-1)
M11 China v Japan 1-3 (1-1)
M12 Pakistan v Korea 3-2 (2-0)
8th September 2011
W05 Japan v Korea 0-1 (0-1)
W06 China v India 4-0 (2-0)
9th September 2011
M13 India v Pakistan 2-2 (0-0)
M14 Korea v China 1-1 (1-0)
M15 Malaysia v Japan 3-2 (0-2)
10th September 2011
W07 Women’s Bronze Medal (3 v 4) - Japan v India
W08 Women’s Gold Medal(1 v 2) - China v Korea
11th September 2011
M16 Men’s Classification(5-6) - Korea v China
M17 Men’s Bronze Medal (3-4) - Japan v Malaysia
M18 Men’s Gold Medal (1-2) - Pakistan v India
Current Standings - Men (9th September 2011)
PS TEAMS P W D L GF GA PTS GD
1. PAKISTAN 5 3 1 1 13 10 10 +3
2. INDIA 5 2 3 0 15 8 9 +7
3. JAPAN 5 2 1 2 11 9 7 +2
4. MALAYSIA 5 2 1 2 14 13 7 +1
5. KOREA 5 2 1 2 13 14 7 -1
6. CHINA 5 0 1 4 5 17 1 -12
Current standings - Women (8th September 2011)
PS TEAMS P W D L GF GA PTS GD
1. CHINA 3 2 1 0 9 2 7 +7
2. KOREA 3 2 1 0 7 3 7 +4
3. JAPAN 3 1 0 2 5 4 3 +1
4. INDIA 3 0 0 3 1 13 0 -12
