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The Asian Hockey Federation announced the schedule for the Men's Asian Champions Trophy. The tournament will take place from August 3 to 12 in Chennai. All the matches will take place at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium.
India will begin their campaign against China on August 3, which will be the third match of the day. Korea will face Japan in the tournament opener, and Malaysia will take on Pakistan in the second match.
Six teams- India, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Japan and China- are placed in one group based on the FIH World Rankings as of April 27, 2023. Each team will take on each other once, and there will be a total of 15 league matches.
India to take on Pakistan on August 9
India will lock horns with the arch-rivals Pakistan in the final league match of the tournament. According to the schedule, this is the final league game to be played on August 9. Earlier on the same day, Japan will take on China, while Malaysia will face off against Korea.
Based on the results from the 15 league matches, the semi-finals will be played on August 11. The top four teams after the league matches will make it to the knock-outs.
After the deciding match for a fifth-sixth place, the first semi-final will take place between the teams that finish second and third in the points table. In the second semi-final, the top team will take on the fourth-placed team.
The finals of the tournament will be played on August 12. In the first match of the day, the losers in both semi-finals will face off for the third place. According to the schedule, the finals will take place at 8:30 PM IST.
For the uninitiated, the first edition of the Asia Champions Trophy took place in 2011. India defeated Pakistan in the shoot-out to win the first edition. The Indian team went on to lift the trophy in the 2016 edition as well. In the 2018 edition, India and Pakistan were announced as joint winners of the tournament.
Pakistan, on the other hand, won the 2012 and 2013 edition.
The current champions of the tournament are South Korea. They defeated Japan by Penalty Shoot (4-2) to lift the trophy in the 2021 Asia Champions Trophy in Dhaka. India finished third in the last edition.
