Bangladesh suffered a 6-4 defeat to Japan in the first semi-final of the Men鈥檚 Under-18 Asia Cup hockey at the Dazhou National Hockey Training Centre in Dazhou, China, on Friday.聽
Bangladesh were leading 4-3 until the 50th minute of the game, but they couldn鈥檛 maintain their composure as Japan scored three goals in the final quarter.
Moududur Rahman鈥檚 charges dominated the first quarter 2-0 with Din Islam opening the account from penalty corner in the second minute before Ismail Hosed added a field goal in the 12th minute.聽
Japan bounced back in the second quarter with Yuma Fujiwara (18th) and Hiroki Toda (28th) scoring one field goal each before Bangladesh regained the lead with captain Abdullah (30th) scoring a field goal.聽
Fujiwara (46th) scored his second field goal for Japan鈥檚 equaliser before Bangladesh got back the lead in the next minute as Amit Hasan scored from a penalty corner.聽
Ryushin Sasaki (51st) and Koki Otsuji (57th) scored once each from penalty corners before Fujiwara (60th) completed his treble with another field goal, setting up Japan鈥檚 final tie against Pakistan on Sunday.
Pakistan defeated Malaysia 4-3 on penalties after a 3-3 tie in the stipulated time of the other semi-final.
Bangladesh will play the third-place deciding match against Malaysia on Sunday.聽
Bangladesh reached the semi-finals as the runners-up of five-team Pool A with nine points from four games as they won matches against Hong Kong 3-0, Sri Lanka 13-0 and China 5-2 before 6-3 loss to Pakistan.聽
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Under-18 women鈥檚 team played a 2-2 draw against Kazakhstan in a Super-four match and the teams will face each other again in the third-place deciding match today.聽
