Pakistan defeated South Korea in the semi-finals of the Asian Championship Trophy
In the first semi-final of the Asian Championship Trophy match played in Dhaka, South Korea defeated Pakistan after a thrilling match and made it to the final.
South Korea won the match by six goals to five, with Jeng Jong-hyun scoring four goals and completing a hat trick.
In the final, South Korea will face the winner of the second semi-final between India and Japan.
This is the first time that the Pakistani team has not been able to reach the final of this tournament. In all the five matches played in the past, the Pakistani team reached the final and won three of them. Pakistan last won the tournament in 2018.
The first semi-final match was played at Maulana Bhashani Stadium. However, while the Pakistani defenders failed to show remarkable performance, the performance of the Pakistani team in the field of penalty corners was disappointing and only two out of eight penalties. The goal was scored on the corners.
Pakistan captain Umar Bhatta scored in the third minute to give Pakistan the lead but due to the mistakes of Pakistan's defenders, South Korea got two penalty strokes in the 11th and 12th minutes. Ended the lead and then gave South Korea the lead.
Junaid Manzoor ended South Korea's lead in the second quarter, but three minutes later Jing scored on a penalty corner to give South Korea the lead again.
Pakistan equalized again in the closing moments of the second quarter with the help of Afraz's goal but South Korea's Yang Johin scored on a penalty corner to give South Korea the lead once again.
At the start of the third quarter, Pakistan had a chance to level the match on a penalty corner but could not take advantage of it, but less than a minute and a half was left until the end of the quarter when Jeong scored the fifth goal for South Korea. By doing so, he doubled his team's lead.
In the fourth quarter, Mubashir Ali reduced South Korea's lead by scoring Pakistan's fourth goal on a penalty corner and with ten minutes left in the match, Mubashir equalized by scoring on another penalty corner.
With five minutes left in the match, South Korea were awarded two penalty corners, with Jing scoring in the second to give his side a decisive lead that lasted until the end.
When Pakistan and South Korea met in the preliminary round, the match was tied with three goals.
The second semi-final of the tournament will be played today between the first-ranked India and the fourth-ranked Japanese team in the preliminary round. The Indian team is unbeaten so far in this tournament and has won three out of four matches and one match was a draw.
India had beaten Japan by six goals in the preliminary round while they had won by three goals to one against traditional rivals Pakistan.
A total of five teams, including Pakistan, India, Japan, South Korea and Bangladesh, are taking part in the tournament following Malaysia's decision not to participate.