The Indian men’s hockey team continued its unmatched performance by defeating South Korea 5-3 in the semifinal to set up a summit match at the Asian Games.
Hardik Singh (5′), Mandeep Singh (11′), Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (15′), Amit Rohidas (24′) and Abhishek (54′) scored to guide the Indian men’s hockey team to the final. Jung Manjae (17′, 20′, 42′) scored a hat-trick for South Korea, as per Olympics.com.
The Indian men’s hockey team will face the winner of the other semi-final match between China and Japan in the gold medal match on Friday.
India, under the direction of Craig Fulton, had earlier won all of their group matches to take first place in Pool A. South Korea came in second place in Pool B. India, which is currently third in the men’s FIH rankings, got off to a strong start and took the lead after five minutes. Before Hardik Singh scored to give India the lead, a skillful passing move down the right side cracked open the Korean defense. A few minutes later, Mandeep Singh, an Indian forward with 11 goals to his credit going into the game, missed a close-range shot that would have doubled the lead.