An early goal from drag flick ace Sohail Abbas was enough to give Pakistan a place in Thursday’s final as they edged out India because of a better goal average to reach the title clash, which will be played in Perth. Pakistan had a goal difference of minus six while Indian finished with a goal difference of minus eight.
India, who needed to beat Pakistan in Tuesday’s match to reach the final, will now be playing for the third place against Australia A.
Sohail drew first blood for Pakistan when he converted a short corner in the second minute, beating Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chhetri with a powerful flick.
India pressed for an equalizer and finally go it through rookie striker Yuvraj Walmiki in the 26th minute.
Pakistani goalie Imran Shah was at his brilliant best as he made several saves and also managed to keep India’s short corner expert Sandeep Singh at bay. Sandeep failed to capitalize on any of the six short corners that came India’s way.
India launched a series of attacks in the last quarter of the match but a packed Pakistani defense manned by Muhammad Imran and Muhammad Irfan turned out to be rock solid.
Pakistani officials were pleased with the result that has placed their team in the final.
“We would have liked to win the match but since even a draw was enough to reach the final we are happy with the result,” said Khawaja Junaid, Pakistan’s manager, while talking to Arab News.
Junaid said that the Greenshirts could have earned an outright win but their forward squandered several goal-scoring opportunities. “Once again, we missed several chances today,” he said.
But he was quick to add that overall Pakistan’s “young team” has played pretty well.
“India are an improved side with several experienced players,” said Junaid, a former Olympian. “We, in contrast, have a number of rookies in the team but even then our performance hasn’t been bad here,” he added.
India coach Michael Nobbs said his team was let down by its strikers.
"This match was a let down by our forwards. I have to seriously think on our forwards. This type of wasting is not expected from them. If we make moves and the players won't send them into the net, its all waste of effort. I have to take drastic steps to streamline our forwardline," the Aussie was quoted as saying in an interview.
Unlike Friday’s heated clash between the two teams, which ended in a fist fight, Tuesday’s match was completely incident free as players from both teams remained focused on giving their best on the field. Two neutral umpires, Girme Murrya of Australia and Chan Cheng of China, supervised the action-packed encounter.
