Malaysia thump Bangladesh
Bangladesh hockey team finished the group stage of the Hero Asia Cup with a massive 8-1 defeat against a strong Malaysian side in Jakarta today.
With three successive wins, Malaysia topped Pool B with nine points. South Korea (six points), Bangladesh (three points) and Oman (naught) finished second, third and fourth respectively.
The men in red and green will now play the 5th-8th place-deciding match against Pool B bottom-side Indonesia on May 29. If Bangladesh can beat Indonesia on Sunday, the charges of Malaysian coach Iman Gobinathan Krishnamurthy will ensure a sixth-place finish out of eight participating teams. They finished sixth in the last edition of the Asia Cup, held in Dhaka in 2017, as well.
Back to today's action, Malaysia, as expected, dominated Bangladesh and scored twice within the first 14 minutes. Bangladesh did raise hopes when Ashraful Islam converted a penalty corner in the 21st minute in the second quarter.
Bangladesh, however, could not hold on to their tempo against Malaysia, who beat Bangladesh 7-0 in their last meeting during the 2018 Asian Games. Malaysia later netted six more goals with Razie Rahim and Faizal Saari notching hat-tricks.
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