Indian coach Fulton praised the performance of the players against Pakistan

CHENNAI: India head coach Craig Fulton lauded his team’s performance in their Asian Champions Trophy hockey match and hoped that his players would continue the same form in their semi-final clash against Japan. India thrashed arch-rivals Pakistan 4-0 in their last round league match on Wednesday to knock them out of the tournament. India are yet to lose any match, top the league table with four wins and a draw and will now take on Japan in the semi-finals on Friday. Fulton said in the press conference after the match, “We showed a very well organized game. We missed some chances in the fourth quarter, but overall we did well. ,

He said, “We showed good consistency in each quarter, which we also showed during the match against Japan (in the 1-1 draw on August 4). Japan have advanced to the semi-finals ahead of Pakistan on better goal difference, though both the teams have five points each. Japan’s goal difference was minus two and Pakistan’s was minus five. In fact, third-placed Korea also scored five points but had a minus one goal difference. “We broke inside the circle a lot more times in each quarter than Japan,” Fulton said of the semi-final against Japan. So now it will be a matter of maintaining continuity. Pakistan coach Mohammad Saqlain later complained that India were wrongly awarded the first penalty corner which saw the hosts take a 1-0 lead through skipper Harmanpreet’s drag-flick.

Saqlain said, “We conceded a goal through India’s first penalty corner but it was well shot. The second umpire informed that it was not a penalty corner but the second umpire did not hear it. , “We lost referrals in the process. This kind of mistake cannot be made at this level, especially when we are playing against the top teams in the world. So there is a need for improvement in the standard of umpiring, which has been inconsistent throughout the tournament. Asked about the umpiring decision in the match, Fulton said, “Video referrals are for that reason only.” The Pakistan goal that was disallowed was hit on the body. But there are some goals which the umpire cannot refuse.

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