{"id":13094,"date":"2025-07-09T15:05:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=13094"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:05:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:05:39","slug":"pakistan-defeat-china-2-1-to-reach-u18-asia-cup-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=13094","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan defeat China 2-1 to reach U18 Asia Cup semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Pakistan secured a spot in the Men\u2019s U18 Asia Cup 2025 semi-finals after defeating hosts China 2-1 at the Dazhou National Hockey Training Centre on July 9.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan began the contest with intensity, taking an early lead in the 11th minute when forward Hassan Shahbaz scored a well-placed field goal.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a flurry of penalty corners awarded during the second quarter\u2014two to each side\u2014neither team managed to alter the score before the interval.<\/p>\n<p>The breakthrough came again for Pakistan late in the third quarter. Ali Hanzala added a second goal, also from open play, giving the visitors breathing room.<\/p>\n<p>However, China responded immediately, with Jiaxing Lin converting a penalty corner in the same minute to reduce the deficit to 2-1.<\/p>\n<p>With the home crowd urging them on, China pushed hard for an equaliser in the final period.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan\u2019s goalkeeper Ghulam Mustafa produced a series of vital saves to preserve the lead, ensuring his team remained unbeaten in the group stage.<\/p>\n<p>The result left Pakistan at the top of Group A, having collected 12 points with a goal difference of +21.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of their campaign, they scored 25 goals and conceded just four.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the tournament, Pakistan opened with an 8-0 win over Hong Kong, followed by a 9-0 rout of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>Their third outing saw them overcome Bangladesh 6-3, which all but sealed their passage to the knockout stage.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan will now meet Malaysia in the semi-final at the same venue on July 11.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan secured a spot in the Men\u2019s U18 Asia Cup 2025 semi-finals after defeating hosts China 2-1 at the Dazhou National Hockey Training Centre on July 9. Pakistan began the contest with intensity, taking an early lead in the 11th minute when forward Hassan Shahbaz scored a well-placed field goal. Despite a flurry of penalty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}