Hong Kong (23 Nov, 2016): Bangladesh brushed aside Macau 13-0 to seal a spot in Saturday’s semi-finals of the 5th Men’s AHF Cup at the King’s Park Hockey Stadium here on Wednesday.
The 2008 (Singapore) and 2012 (Thailand) champions, who are eying a third consecutive victory, dominated play and took a commanding 6-0 lead in this Group A encounter at half time.
Drag-flick specialist and 18-year-old Ashraful Islam scored five goals – four from penalty corners (2nd, 10th, 40thh and 58th minutes) and an 11th minute penalty stroke. He has scored six goals in the tournament so far.
Sarower Hossain knocked a hat-trick (23rd, 61st and 63rd minutes), Roman Sarkar netted a brace (19th and 62nd minutes) while Hasan Jubair (35th), Kowshiq Islam Mainul (69th) and Khorshadur Rahman added their names on the score sheet.
Bangladesh had earlier defeated Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei, both by 4-2 margin in the Pool A fixtures.
Host Hong Kong came back from a goal down to hold Chinese Taipei to a 3-3 draw but qualified for the semi-finals on a better goal difference. Both Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei are tied at 4-equal points from three matches. Bangladesh topped the table standings with nine points having scored a total of 17 goals.
Chinese Taipei took a 2-1 lead at half time with goals from Lin Tse-Yen (3rd minute) and Tseng Hsien-Yi 19th minute penalty corner conversion after Chow Ho Yin pulled one back for Hong Kong as the match moved into the end of the first quarter.
The host sighed a huge relieve when Sukmit Singh (45th) and Iu Felix (64th) gave Hong Kong a 3-2 lead for the first time but Tseng returned to score from a penalty corner two minutes into the end for the equaliser.
Both Bangladesh and Hong Kong will know their semi-finals opponents upon completion of Group B fixtures on Thursday between Singapore-Uzbekistan and Thailand-Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankans and Singaporeans share four-equal points after two matches but Sri Lanka go on top of the table standings on a superior goal difference.
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