Asia Cup 2025: India reaches the final, now just 1 step away from the title
Asia Cup 2025: The Indian women's hockey team performed brilliantly in its Super-4 match against Japan in the Women's Asia Cup 2025 and played a 1-1 draw. This exciting match was played in Hangzhou, where India took an early lead with a brilliant goal from Beauty Dungdung (7th minute), but Japan's Shiho Kobayakawa (58th minute) scored a goal in the last moments to level the score. With this draw, India qualified for the final. In fact, Team India won 1 out of 3 matches and remained second in the points table. Now it will face the Chinese team in the final.
In super 4, the Indian team performed brilliantly against Japan and played a 1-1 draw. With this, it remained second in the points table.
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India reaches the final
The Indian women's hockey team took an aggressive stance at the start of the match and troubled Japan's defense in the first few minutes. Ishika Chaudhary hit a brilliant shot on the goalpost, which hit the frame. After this, Japan started counter-attacks, but the Indian team soon took the lead with a goal by Beauty Dungdung.
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This goal was scored by Dungdung after deflecting Neha's shot into the goal. India also got the first penalty corner in the last moments of the first quarter, but the score remained at 1-0.
Women's hockey team confirmed its place in the Women's Asia Cup
In the second quarter, Japan played aggressively in search of equalizer and got a penalty corner. However, the Indian defense easily foiled it. As the game progressed, the Indian team regained control and gained control of the ball. But at the end of the quarter, Japan put pressure on India. Still, the Indian defense performed brilliantly and prevented Japan from scoring and maintained a 1-0 lead till half-time.
Japan scored in the last moments
The Indian women's hockey team intensified their attack in the third quarter. Lalremsiami made brilliant moves on several occasions and troubled the Japanese defense. The Indian attack completely dominated this quarter, but failed to score a second goal and kept the score at 1-0. In the fourth and final quarter, Japan put in all its effort in search of an equalizer.
Summary
Defending champions Japan put pressure on the Indian defense, but India thwarted their attacks with excellent defense. In the middle of the quarter, India counterattacked and got several penalty corners, which increased the pressure on Japan. However, in the last minutes, Shiho Kobayakawa scored an equalizer for Japan to make the score 1-1. In the end, both teams remained tied and were forced to share the points as soon as the hooter sounded.
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