India eased into the final of the Asian Champions Trophy 2024 after their captain Harmanpreet Singh's brace led them to a rather straightforward 4-1 win over South Korea. The win meant that India set up a summit clash against hosts China.
Just like in the league phase game against the Koreans, which India won 3-1, they scored in the first quarter here as well, and this time, it was a superb field goal, that was finished off by Uttam Singh, for his fourth goal of the tournament. It was a move that began with Manpreet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasahe took it to the baseline, and then squared the ball across for Uttam, who only had to tap into an empty net from a yard out.
Korea had a chance to equalize just a minute later, but spurned two penalty corner opportunities, both of which they wasted by trying variations rather than letting tournament top-scorer Yang Ji-hun take a direct dragflick at goal.
India then extended their lead early on in the second quarter, with one of Harmanpreet's less fiercely struck dragflicks, but a deflection helped his cause and put India firmly in control of the match. That control was further magnified a minute after half-time, as Jarmanpreet Singh scored a rare goal for India.
It was another excellent piece of play that led to the goal, as Sumit Walmiki played a wonderful aerial cross-field ball from left to right, and Jarmanpreet trapped it nicely in the circle before a fierce drive on goal left the Korean goalkeeper with no time to even react.
Korea got a goal back a minute after that, as Ji-hun made no mistake with a dragflick, although Krishan Bahadur Pathak might feel that he could've done better in getting a firmer pad to that strike.
Korea couldn't really build momentum from that moment, and their cause was further hampered by goalkeeper Kim Jae-han handling the ball outside the circle, and being yellow carded for it. Harmanpreet scored from the resulting penalty corner, and put the game well beyond the Koreans' reach.
India will face China in the final on Tuesday after the hosts beat Pakistan in a shootout in the other semifinal earlier in the day. In the league phase match between the two sides on the opening day of the tournament, India easily won 3-0, and will also begin the final as overwhelming favourites.
(You can relive the match, as it happened, below)