Read more
Now the Indian side will look to book their berth in the final against a spirited Japanese side, even though Harmanpreet and Co. will be the favourites, they will be wary of the threat posed by the team from the land of the rising sun.
According to the FIH World rankings, India are far superior to Japan, the Men in Blue are in fourth place in the world rankings while Japan are in 19th place. Despite this, the Japanese were able to churn out a 1-1 draw against India. The Men in Blue had lost to Japan 3-5 in the 2021 edition of the Asian Hockey Champions Trophy even though they had picked up a 6-0 win over Japan in the group stage clash.
Talking about the head-to-head between the two sides, India have the upper hand and they have won 27 of the 34 games played, losing just thrice. In the previous five encounters between these sides, India had won thrice.
In total Harmanpreet Singh’s men have scored 20 goals in the tournament so far and Craig Fulton will be hoping that the Indian team will be more clinical with their penalty corners.
In the group-stage clash, India earned 15 penalty corners but converted just one of them.