<\/p>\n
LAHORE: Pakistan produced an impressive performance to beat Japan 4-3 in the semi-final of the FIH Hockey World Cup qualifier at the Suez Canal Authority Hockey Stadium in Egypt on Friday.<\/p>\n
The victory guaranteed the Green Shirts a place in the World Cup and marks their return to the global event after eight years. The tournament will be jointly organized by Belgium and the Netherlands in August.<\/p>\n
The Pakistan team, led by Ammad Butt, was trailing 3-1 in the third quarter of the match against Japan, when they scored three goals in the last nine minutes of the final quarter to take a 4-3 lead, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.<\/p>\n
Ammad gave his team the lead in the ninth minute with a stunning field goal. The lead, which remained intact until the end of the first quarter, was neutralized in the second quarter (minute 21) when the Japanese Ryoma Ooka scored a field goal.<\/p>\n
In an inspiring spectacle, Japan took control of the match in the penultimate quarter when Shota Yamada (35th minute) and Yamasaki Koji (40th minute) scored in quick succession to take a solid 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
However, in a sensational comeback in the last quarter, Pakistan’s Abu Bakr Mahmood, Sufyan Khan and Afraz scored a goal each in the 52nd, 55th and 57th minutes respectively to regain the lead which remained intact until the final whistle.<\/p>\n
Just two minutes before the end of the match, Japan missed a golden opportunity to equalize when Fujishima Raiki missed a penalty.<\/p>\n
Pakistan have put up an impressive show in the qualification phase, winning all their group matches against China (5-4), Malaysia (5-3), Austria (4-2) and Japan (4-3).<\/p>\n
Ammad and company will now face England, who defeated Malaysia 7-1 in the other quarter-final match, in the final of the qualifying event at the same venue on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Pakistan, once a giant force in world hockey and a four-time World Cup winner, failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup held in The Hague, Netherlands, and finished poorly in 12th position in the 16-nation edition held in Bhubaneswar, India in 2018. Pakistan also failed to qualify for the 2023 World Cup held in the Indian city of Odisha.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\nSource: https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1979179\/pakistan-edge-japan-4-3-to-qualify-for-hockey-world-cup-after-8-years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAHORE: Pakistan produced an impressive performance to beat Japan 4-3 in the semi-final of the FIH Hockey World Cup qualifier at the Suez Canal Authority Hockey Stadium in Egypt on Friday. The victory guaranteed the Green Shirts a place in the World Cup and marks their return to the global event after eight years. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[47237],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20022,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20020\/revisions\/20022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}