Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), June 20 (IANS) Pakistan defeated France in a dramatic shoot-out while New Zealand overcame South Korea via another shoot-out in the semifinals on Day 4 of the FIH Hockey Men’s Nations Cup 2025 at the National Hockey Stadium here on Friday. A day of dramatic finishes, huge celebrations, and impressive goalscoring sent the tournament into Saturday’s final games on an exciting high.
Pakistan roared back against France in the first semifinal, causing a real upset by beating Les Bleus 3-2 on penalties.
Led by the mercurial creative powers of Waheeb Ashraf Rana, Pakistan will be playing for a spot in the FIH Men’s Pro League against New Zealand in the final. The Blacksticks won a penalty shootout of their own, beating Korea despite a strong comeback thanks to the impressive Korean penalty corner battery. The 3rd/4th place play-off will be a repeat of the incredible Day 1 game that finished 6-5 between France and Korea.
France, after a strong showing in the pool stages, faced Pakistan in the first semi-final and the most exciting game of the day. The first quarter remained goalless despite five penalty corners being exchanged, one for Pakistan and four for France.
In the second quarter, Xavier Esmenjaud threw himself forward with an outstretched stick to put Les Bleus in the lead, touching the ball across the goal. Early in the second half, France doubled their lead, as the inevitable Victor Charlet converted France’s fifth penalty corner to give France a real boost towards the final.
Pakistan roared back into the game, however, overturning France the dominance and control as Waheed Ashraf Rana set up Afraz’s slap shot before both erupted into celebrations that marked the shift in momentum.
Sufyan Khan joined the party, letting fly an unstoppable drag-flick into the top left corner and finding parity with the French. A minute later, Muhammad Hammadudin fantastically deflected in Rana’s flat reverse hit to go 3-2 up.
Victor Charlet stepped up with two minutes to play for the French, as his deflected flick equalised with two minutes to go. Pakistan went on to win the penalty shootout using just four of their five attempts as France failed to convert chances even after they had wrongfooted the ‘keeper. Pakistan head to their second Nations Cup final in as many years, looking to go one better than they did last year.
New Zealand prevail over Korea
The final game of the day began with two stunning goals, both from New Zealand. At the end of a relatively subdued first quarter, Scott Boyd’s lasered slap was deflected in on the turn by Jonty Elmes, who redirected the ball into the bottom right corner whilst wrong-footing Kim Jaehan in goal. Dylan Thomas one-upped his teammate, however, dancing in from the sideline to turn a relatively innocuous possession into one of the goals of the tournament. After swiftly beating three Korean defenders, he sent a flick up into the roof of the net to double the Black Sticks’ lead.
From then on, as Pakistan had in the game before, Korea chipped away at their opponent’s 2-0 lead. First to make a dent was drag-flicker Lim Dohyun, who manufactured the angle needed to beat Dominic Dixon past his helpless right foot from Korea’s second penalty corner.
Yang Jihun piled in on the act, rocketing his third-quarter drag-flick into the bottom right and pulling scores level. The momentum flitted back and forth between the two teams until the final whistle took the sides to another penalty shootout.
Kim Jaehan made a good save to deny the first Black Stick penalty, but after Korea failed to convert their first two, New Zealand always had the upper hand to win the shootout and make it to the final. Korea, after a fantastic tournament already, will face France in the 3rd/4th place play-off.
Earlier in the playoff matches, Wales and Japan opened the day’s play in the 5th-8th place play-offs and, not for the first time in the competition, Wales took a strong lead. Unlike the previous games, however, they held onto their advantage to pick up their first win of the tournament and progress to the 5th/6th place play-off.
Japan will head into the 7th/8th place play-off to face South Africa, both sides hoping that the first win will help them avoid a last-placed finish.
Hosts Malaysia bounced back from Wednesday’s disappointment to beat South Africa 4-2 in a convincing performance that puts them into a final game against Wales to battle for 5th place.
–IANS
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