Press Trust of India
Kuantan (Malaysia), Nov 17: India defeated China 4-1 in their last pool match to maintain a clean slate going into the quarterfinals of the junior men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament, here Tuesday.
The win over China helped the Indian colts, who had earlier defeated Japan 2-1 and hosts Malaysia 5-4, register their third consecutive win in the tournament and finish on top of Pool A. India will now meet Oman, the bottom-placed team of Pool B in the quarterfinals Thursday.
For India, Manpreet Singh Jr (52nd, 67th minutes) scored two goals converting penalty corners while Harmanpreet Singh (16th) and Ajit Pandey (37th) scored one goal apiece. China’s lone goal was scored by Haifeng Guo in the 43rd minute.
India started the match on an attacking note pressing hard on the weak Chinese defence, but could only break the deadlock in the 16th minute through Harmanpreet. In the first half, the Chinese managed to hold on and did not concede any further goals.
India doubled their lead in the second minute of the second half through Ajit. But China pulled one back in the very next minute through a penalty corner converted by Guo.
“It is good that we have continued with our winning momentum. It gets tougher from here, and we all realise that we now enter the knockout zone hence every match is important,” said coach Harendra Singh said. “The boys will definitely play according to the situation now,” he added.