CHENNAI: South Korea made a comeback to deny Pakistan their first victory in the Asian Champions Trophy as they played out a 1-1 draw here at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Friday.

Pakistan, who lost to Malaysia on the opening day of the tournament, played almost a similar game against Korea.

The Umar Bhutta-led green-shirts were sharp with their high press and forced plenty of turnovers, but wasted several chances including five penalty corners.

In the sixth minute, Abdul Rehman failed to hit the target from close range after being set up by Arshad Liaquat.

Abdul Shahid made one similar run through two Korean defenders and played the pass across the goal, where a sliding Afraz couldn’t get on the end of.

Shahid, though, made up for the miss from earlier, when he had the simplest of tasks to divert Abdul Rana’s pass to the back post. Korea were poor in closing down Rana, who had the time and space to pick out Shahid from inside the circle.

Pakistan could have added to the scoreline but drag flicker Mohammed Khan again could not utilise penalty corners.

In the final quarter, Korea forced Pakistan to make mistakes. Korea, too, had chances from their penalty corners, especially in the 48th minute when Jonghyun Jang’s drag flick was crucially blocked by Liaquat on the line.

Korea had six penalty corners in the final 15 minutes and Jang struck the body of Muhammad Abdullah on the line to earn his side a penalty stroke. Jihun Yang made no mistake in restoring parity with seven minutes left.

Against the run of play, Pakistan had the chance to go ahead in the final three minutes but Jaehyon Kim pulled off a stunning triple save including two from the stick of Shahid.

MALAYSIA THRASH CHINA

Meanwhile, Faisal Saari continued his impressive Asian Champions Trophy campaign with a two-goal display in Malaysia’s 5-1 hammering of China.

China took a surprise early lead when Chongcong Chen slid to divert a deflected shot into the goal. The Chinese flashed a few shots inside the Malaysian circle but the opposition defenders and goalkeeper Mat Deris Zaimi kept them at bay.

Malaysia hit back in the first quarter through penalty corners.

Faisal, who set up three goals against Pakistan, turned drag flicker and sounded the board in the right corner. In the final minute of the quarter, Azrai Aizad held off a defender and find the roof of the net after a rebound from a penalty corner.

A disciplined Malaysia side moved the ball swiftly from one side to the other and ultimately got a two-goal cushion through Faisal.

Marhan Jalil fired a pass from outside the 23m line into the path of Faisal, who deflected the ball towards the goal. China’s Caiyu Wang hesitated due to Azrai’s presence in front of him as the ball dribbled past him and onto the board. The Chinese wanted a review claiming it came off their own stick but the referee did not allow.

Malaysia added a fourth through Firhan Ashari in the final quarter when he slammed home a rebound for his third goal of the tournament. While first-choice drag flicker Razie Rahim failed to convert his penalty corners, Najmi Jazlan made it five with a well-placed drag flick through the keeper’s legs.

Later on Friday, three-time champions India were held to a 1-1 draw by Japan in their second match of the continental event.

India had started their campaign with a commanding 7-1 win over China on Thursday.

But, the hosts were blocked out by a dogged Japanese defence.

Ken Nagayoshi gave Japan the lead in the 28th minute of the match which was neutralised by India skipper Harmanpreet Singh in the 43rd minute.

Published in Dawn, Aug 5th, 2023