IND vs PAK, Asian Champions Trophy Highlights: India beat Pakistan 4-0 at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai in their Asian Champions Trophy clash on Wednesday (August 9). While Pakistan enjoyed a better head-to-head record going by current form and world rankings, India had entered this game as overwhelming favourites and played like one in this fixture. Harmanpreet Singh led from the front and scored two goals, both from penalty corners, exhibitioning why he is regarded as the finest drag flickers in the world.
While Harmanpreet Singh's brace came in the first half with a goal each in 15th and 23rd minute, Gurjan Singh scored for India in the third quarter (36th minute) to put India 3-0 ahead and take the match completely out of reach of Pakistan. Mandeep Singh then put his name on the scoring sheet with less than 5 minutes to go in the match. Notably, Pakistan were initially awarded a goal in the first quarter itself before India had broken the deadlock but following an early review from the host nation, the goal was disallowed.
The result implies that Pakistan are now out of the race to the semifinals of the Asian Champions Trophy with India, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan being the four teams that will compete in the semis. Pakistan end the league stage with 8 points while Japan, who came fourth, had 10 which is why they managed to edge out Pakistan.
With the conclusion of the round-robin stage, Pakistan will now lock horns with China for a fifth place game. India, the only team to have finished the league stage as the unbeaten side, will meet Japan in the semifinal while Malaysia and South Korea will square off in the other semifinal. All these three matches are scheduled to be played on August 11 (Friday). The third place game and the final are slated to happen on Saturday (August 12).