Azlan Shah Cup: Japan beat Pakistan in penalty shoot-out

IPOH: Japan won Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup final against Pakistan in an exciting match that went into a penalty shootout on Saturday.

Japan came hard at Pakistan and took a 1-0 lead when Tanaka Seren scored a field goal in the 12th minute. In addition, Ejaz Ahmed from the Pakistani team scored their first goal in the 34th minute.

Furthermore, Abdur Rehman scored the second goal for Pakistan in the 37th minute of the third quarter. On the other hand, Japan’s second goal was scored in the fourth quarter, evening out the score to 2-2.

The match went to penalty Shoot-out, during the shoot-out, Japan scored four goals in a row in the first, second, third, and fourth attempts, while Pakistan managed to score only one goal 4:1.

This is the first time in 13 years that Pakistan played the final of the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup. They last played the tournament’s final at the 2011 edition where they were defeated by Australia by 3-2.

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However, Green Shirts have secured 11 points as they defeated Canada, hosts Malaysia and South Korea while two matches against Japan and New Zealand ended in a draw.

Japan beat Malaysia, South Korea and New Zealand and their match against Pakistan ended in a draw.

As a result, Japan leads the points table with 13 points while Pakistan ranks second with 11 points. New Zealand holds the third position with seven points while Malaysia follows them with a pointless.