New Delhi | The Asian Champions Trophy men’s hockey tournament will witness a new champion in the current edition as the 3 times champions India and Pakistan are out of the race for the glory. The joint defending champions were beaten in their respective semi-finals by the teams who are hunting their first Asian Champions Trophy title.
The runner-up of 2013 edition Japan took their revenge by beating India 5-3 in the semi-final against whom they had faced the capitulating rout of 0-6 in their last league stage game. While Pakistan's dreams were shattered by South Korea 6-5 in a close encounter.
Nevertheless, the defending champions now will go against each other for the Bronze medal on Wednesday (December 22). Like many other sports the rivalry is expected to be nail-biting as the arch-rivals will now look to finish the tournament on a high note.
Manpreet Singh-led India will be looked as favourites for Bronze as they were better of Men in Green in the round-robin stage of the five-nation tournament. Moreover, India had finished the group stage as the table-topper without facing a single loss and with three wins in the first four matches. The solitary defeat for them came in the knockout stage of the tournament.
On the other hand, Pakistan finished at three with five points in four matches. After playing stalemates against Japan and South Korea and tasting the defeat against the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists, Pakistan brought their A game against Bangladesh who were playing their first ever Asian Champions Trophy to reserve their berth for the semi-finals.
Despite their contrasting journey in the league stages, now the ousted sides will clash again for the third place following their defeats in the knockout stages of the tournament. Harmanpreet Singh and Dilpreet Singh were sensational for India and have scored seven and five goals respectively and were instrumental behind India's sheer dominance in the league stage while Afraz was the top-scorer for Pakistan with 3 goals under his belt.
Both the nation have their moments in the semi-finals but unfortunately that wasn't enough for them to staple their tickets for the finals and now the only option left for them is to play with their heart out for the Bronze.
