Moqi: The Indian hockey team defeated Japan in the second match of the Asian Champions Trophy 2024. The Paris Olympics bronze medalist team won by 5-1 in the match played in Hulunbuir on Monday.
In its first match on Sunday, India defeated hosts China 3-0. India will next play Malaysia on September 11. Sukhjeet Singh scored 2 goals while, Abhishek, Sanjay, and Uttam Singh scored 1-1 for defending champion India. While Matsumoto Kazumasa scored a goal in the counter attack for Japan.
The Indian team put Japan on the back foot by scoring two goals in the first 2 minutes of this match. Sukhjeet Singh scored the first goal for the team and Abhishek scored the second goal. The team scored both the initial goals as field goals. The second quarter also started with a goal. In the 17th minute of the match, India got a penalty corner. Which Sanjay converted into a goal and increased India’s lead to 3-0.
After missing many chances in the first two quarters, Japan finally scored its first goal in the beginning of the third quarter. Matsumoto Kazumasa opened his team’s account by scoring a field goal in the 41st minute of the match. The Indian team could not score any goal in this quarter.
India made the match one-sided in the last quarter. Uttam and Sukhjeet scored two goals one after the other. Uttam Singh scored a field goal in the 54th minute of the match. While in the last minute of the match, Sukhjeet Singh scored his second goal in the match, taking India’s lead to 5-1.