IPOH (Malaysia) : In the final of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament, Japan defeated Pakistan by 1-4 goals on penalty shootout after a thrilling match.
The final of the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament was played in Ipoh, Malaysia between Pakistan and Japan, who were unbeaten in the tournament so far. After 13 years, the finals of the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament for the Pakistani team did not start well and Japan took the lead by scoring the first goal. However, after that, the national team made a brilliant comeback in the match and leveled the match thanks to Ejaz Ahmed’s goal. In the third quarter of the match, the national team adopted an aggressive strategy and continued to attack against Japan, and the national hockey team got its reward when Abdul Rehman hit the ball into the goal post to give Pakistan a one-goal lead in the match. gave Before the national team could win the match, Japan scored a goal in the fourth quarter of the match to tie the game. The final match was decided on a penalty shootout in which Pakistan wasted their first two chances to score while Japan did not waste any of their chances and scored 4 goals in 4 shootouts while Pakistan missed 3 chances and scored only one. scored Liaqat Arshad and Rana Waheed Ashraf missed the chance to score a goal corner on behalf of Pakistan. The Pakistani team was unbeaten in this tournament before the final, winning three out of five matches and drawing two matches. Pakistan has previously won the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament title thrice and last won the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in 2003. Earlier, in the match played for the third and fourth position, New Zealand won the bronze medal by defeating the host Malaysia 2-3.
