KUANTAN: Pakistan thumped China 4-0 on Thursday to set up an Asian Hockey Champions Trophy semi-final clash against hosts Malaysia.

The victory helped Pakistan to finish the league phase of tournament in third spot with nine points, while Malaysia, who held South Korea to a draw with a last-gasp goal from Razie Rahim, finished on second place behind India with 10 points.

The Koreans, who occupied fourth spot with eight points, play India in the other semi-final.

The permutations kept changing on last day of preliminary-round matches since Pakistan s goal-difference was far inferior to that of Malaysia, so a tie on points would have put Malaysia ahead.

Malaysia needed a victory or a draw to take the second spot in the group, but a victory in the last outing would have lifted the Koreans to the second place in the standings, pushing Malaysia down to the third spot and Pakistan to the fourth.

In case of a Korean victory on Thursday, India’s semi-final would have been against arch-rivals Pakistan.

This scenario was unfolding after Jeong Jun-Woo put the Koreans ahead in the 37th minute, while Malaysia s strikers kept spraying their shots wide.

With the Koreans leading by a goal until the 56th minute, an India-Pakistan semi-final was on the horizon until Rahim converted a penalty corner four minutes from the end.

Pakistan, meanwhile, had to overcome some early Chinese resistance before sealing victory.

China forced two penalty corners before Pakistan came into the contest, earning three successive penalty corners in the 21st minute and opened the account through Abdul Haseem Khan, who converted the third penalty corner with a shot along the turf that got deflected into the board.

Haseem got his second goal in open play in the 31st minute, but China continued to launch occasional attacks until the game was taken beyond their reach by two field goals by Pakistan strikers within one minute.

Ali Khan made it 3-0 for the green-shirts with a flash strike in the 48th minute and Mohammad Irfan Jr shot on target just 30 seconds later to round off the scoring.

India, who topped the league standings with a tally of 13 points, now get a chance to make up for their erratic show against the young Korean team in the 1-1 draw, while defending champions Pakistan need a turnaround in their last-four fixture with Mala­ysia who had stunned them 4-2 in the opening match.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2016