India will take on Japan in a repeat of last edition's semi-finals for a place in the final of Men's Asian Champions Trophy 2021 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Both the teams are high on morale but India are definitely in an advantageous position given than they are still unbeaten in the tournament.
Moreover, they also won against Japan in their last league match and will try and take off from where they had left. In the other semi-final South Korea will take on Pakistan on Tuesday. Here's all you need to know about the big-ticket Men's Champion's Trophy 2021 semi-final match between India and Japan.
When and Where
India will take on Japan in the second semi-final that will be played at Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh on Tuesday. The match starts at 5:30 PM IST/6:00 PM Bangladesh time.
The match will be telecast live on the Star Sports 1/HD, Star Sports Select 2/HD in India form 5 pm IST.
How to Watch Online
The India vs Japan semi-final hockey matches in Men's Asian Champions Trophy 2021 will be streamed live on Disney+ Hotstar. Besides the will also be streamed live on the watch.hockey app.
Big-Ticket Encounter
India will go into the semifinal with a lot of advantage given that the Men in Blue gave Japan a 6-0 drubbing in their final league match on Sunday. However, Graham Reid's men will need to guard against complacency as their win against Japan in the league match will have little bearing in the knock-out game.
India so far has had a great tournament. After a slow start to the tournament where they weld on by Korea in a 2-2 result, three-time champions and Olympic bronze-medallist India won all their matches. India ended the round-robin stage of the five-nation tournament at the top of the standings with 10 points, ahead of Korea (6), Japan (5), Pakistan (5) and hosts Bangladesh (0). In the match against Japan, as many as five players scored with Harmanpreet Singh hitting a brace.
Japan on the other hand suffered their only defeat against India. So, India cannot take their opponent lightly.
In the 2018 semi-final, India defeated Japan 3-2.
India's record in Asian Hockey Champions Trophy
Winner: 2011,2016,2018
Runners-Up: 2012
5th place: 2013
India's squad
Midfielders: Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh (C), Jaskaran Singh, Sumit, Rajkumar Pal, Akashdeep Singh, Shamsher Singh
Forwards: Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Dilpreet Singh, Gursahibjit Singh, Shilanand Lakra
That said, records and rankings hardly matter in international hockey a bad day can spoil everything.
