Green shirts beat Japan 4-3 in ACT

KARACHI: Pakistan beat Japan 4-3 in their fourth match of the Asian Champions Trophy in Kuantan, Malaysia.

With two wins and as many defeats, and one match remaining, against China, Pakistan have one foot in the semi-finals.

Against India, both Pakistan’s goals were well earned but two of the three conceded were soft. Today, again Pakistan made errors in the defence which should have been avoided.

Japan’s three goals once again exposed Pakistan’s weak defence and goalkeeping.

Japanese never went ahead. It was Pakistan who became complacent after getting lead on more than one occasion.

They first went ahead in the 5th minute after a video referral confirmed that Irfan Junior’s stick did touch the ball within the circle. 

Japan struck back within four minutes. Hatano was surprisingly given a lot of space along the right side. He made a good run and sent a wonderful minus which was sent to the net by a superb Seren Tanaka tomahawk from the top of the circle.

Just two minutes had passed when Ali Shan entered the circle with deft stick work and forced a foot foul to get a penalty corner.

The goalkeeper was helpless against Aleem Bilal’s thunderous high flick on right side of the goal.

Pakistan looked to strengthen the lead in the first five minutes of the second quarter but suddenly Japan came close to scoring; deflection to a hit missed the target. Very next minute, Pakistan missed out in almost the same manner. 

After a midfield play over the next few minutes, a Japanese cross from the left couldn’t find a touch in front of the Pakistani goal.

However, they were able to draw level at 2-2 in the last minute of the first half. Aleem failed to make a routine stop and Kenta Tanaka just inside the circle hit the net with a reverse shot. 

The Green-shirts began aggressively on restart. The efforts bore fruit in the 36th minute. Rizwan Sr with his back towards the goal sounded the board with reverse shot from a narrow angle.

Pakistan were well in control when the game had to be stopped twice because of heavy rain. 

Their opening match against Malaysia was also halted due to rain and also in the third quarter. That day too, Pakistan were leading but lost the rhythm on resumption and were defeated 2-4.

The Green-shirts kept their composure and repeatedly raided the Japanese goal but poor finishing let them down.

Off the second PC, Aleem Bilal again netted with a right high flick, almost a replica of his first goal.

With nine minutes left, it seemed Pakistan would easily go home with three points.

But the Japanese earned their only PC because of an Ammad Butt silly tackle outside the circle. The PC strike hit a defender on the goal line and the consequent penalty stroke was duly converted by Zendana.

With six minutes left, the Japanese went all out to gain their first point of the tournament. Three good opportunities were created but the equaliser eluded them.

Net minder Imran Butt and defenders kept Pakistan’s lead intact till the end of the 60 minutes.