CHENNAI, Sept 8: South Korea faced a stiff challenge from Malaysia before posting a 2-1 victory in the Asia Cup men’s hockey semi-final here on Saturday.

Oh Dae Keun and Yoon Sung Hoon scored for South Korea, while captain Azlon Misron found the target for Malaysia.

South Korea will now meet the winners of the second semi-final between India and Japan.

The plucky Malaysians had a chance to restore parity in the closing 10 minutes when they forced two penalty corners, but failed to capitalise on them.

South Korea's early supremacy resulted in a seventh-minute goal when Keun deflected in a Jang Jong Hyun cross from the left. They kept testing the Malaysian defence, but found it difficult to beat goalkeeper Kumar Subramaniam.

The Malaysian goalkeeper had a good game, saving five penalty-corner shots to keep the South Koreans at bay.

Malaysia came back strongly in the second half to make it 1-1 in the 38th minute, with Misron smartly deflecting in a defence-splitting pass from Tajuddin Ahmad to catch goalkeeper Ko Dong Sik on the wrong-foot.

Stung by the goal, South Korea launched an all-out attack and earned four penalty corners in quick succession before gaining a 2-1 lead in the 60th minute.

Hoon capped a solo run with a brilliant goal as he moved into the striking circle from the left after dodging past a couple of defenders and then beat the Malaysian goalkeeper with an angular placement.

Pakistan, having crashed out of medal contention for the first time in tournament’s history, defeated Bangladesh 10-0 in a playoff match for fifth to eighth places.

Abbas Haider, Tariq Aziz and Muhammad Arshad and penalty corner specialist Muhammad Imran scored two goals each for the winners while Waqas Shariff and Yasir Islam each scored once to complete the rout.

In other playoff matches, China defeated Hong Kong 6-1 and Singapore beat Thailand 4-0.—Agencies