The Greenshirts, who were facing a must-win situation following Tuesday’s loss against Japan, were in top gear during the action-packed encounter and collected full victory points to take their tally to nine from four outings.
They overtook previously top-placed India on the table after the Indians were held to a 2-2 draw by spirited Malaysia in another match on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s results mean that Friday’s mouth-watering clash between Pakistan and India will virtually serve as a semifinal. Pakistan will just need a draw to enter the final.
After paying the price for its silly mistakes against Japan, Pakistan was in its element against Korea as it cruised to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter.
Waqas Sharif drew first blood for the Greenshirts with a delightful strike from the right in the 7th minute. Mohammad Irfan then converted a short corner six minutes later to make it 2-0.
Korea returned to the field after the breather in a much more aggressive mode and reduced the lead to 1-2 through Sun Hook Cho in the 43rd minute.
In the 52nd minute, Hyun Woo Nam capitalized on a short corner to level the scores for Korea. But following a series of counter attacks, Pakistan finally scored the winner through Shafqat Rasool in the 57th minute.
Meanwhile, India blew a perfect chance to confirm its place in Sunday’s final after a 2-2 draw with Malaysia.
With the Malaysians leading 2-1 till the 51st minute, it was a superb strike from Danish Mujtaba that helped India to draw the match. Ravi Pal scored the other Indian goal.
Tajuddin Jalil and Muhammad Amin were the goal-scorers for Malaysia.
Japan continued its golden form in the elite six-nation tournament by beating host China 3-1 to stay in the race for a place in the final.
With just one more round of league matches to go, Pakistan heads the table with nine points. India is second on eight points followed by Japan (7), Malaysia (4) and China (0).
Pakistani officials were delighted with their team’s performance against Korea.
“It was great to see the way our boys bounced back after the loss against Japan to give their best against a top team like Korea,” said Khawaja Junaid, Pakistan’s manager. “They were warned against repeating the mistakes they committed against Japan and it was heartening to see that they showed a lot of improvement today,” he told Arab News from Ordos.
Junaid said that the key to Pakistan’s success was the coordination between the players. “Our coordination was really good, with the ball and without the ball,” he said.
“The boys performed whatever job was given to them by the team management. They knew that it was a must-win match and all of them were really focused and played with a lot of responsibility,” he added.
