Bangladesh Men's Hockey team reached the final of the Junior AHF Cup (U-21) Hockey Tournament'2024 with an all-win record, outplaying Chinese Taipei by 5-1 goals in the first semifinal at Sengkang Sports Centre in Singapore on Saturday.
Bangladesh will play the final on Sunday against China, who eliminated Thailand by 4-0 goals in the second semifinal on Saturday afternoon.
In the day's first semifinal, Wei Cheng-Ze put Chinese Taipei ahead in the very 5th minute by a field goal, much to the frustration of the defending champions Bangladesh (1-0), while Mohammad Joy levelled the margin for Bangladesh just a few seconds later also by a field goal (1-1).
Later, Amirul Islam (16th and 31st minutes) and Mohammad Abdullah (23rd and 58th minutes) struck two goals each to guide Bangladesh into the final with a comfortable victory. (5-1).
With the day's feat, Amirul Islam of Bangladesh is in the 2nd slot on the tournament's scorer list with nine individual goals, while Duisengazy Agymtay of Kazakhstan tops the list with ten goals.
Earlier, Bangladesh reached the semifinals as the Pool A champions with an all-win record, securing a full 12 points from four straight matches, crushing Singapore 7-0, Sri Lanka 5-0, Thailand 4-2, and Indonesia by 7-0 goals in their Pool A matches.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Women's Hockey team qualified for the final round of the Junior Asia Cup (U-21) Hockey for the first time as one of the five best teams of the ongoing seven-nation Junior AHF Cup (U-21) Hockey Tournament, crushing Indonesia by 10-1 goals at the same venue Saturday morning.
In the day's match, Orpita Pal scored three goals, Irin Ria and Kona Akter struck two goals each, and Nadira, Lima, and Sanjida scored one each for Bangladesh.
This was the 4th win for the Bangladesh Women's Hockey team in their 5th league match after beating Thailand 5-4, Hong Kong (China) 2-1, Sri Lanka 7-2, and conceding 0-3 goals against Chinese Taipei, apart from the day's massive 10-1 win over Indonesia.
Bangladesh will play their remaining league match on Sunday (June 23) against hosts Singapore.
Bangladesh Women's team took part in the Junior AHF Cup (U-21) Hockey for the first time in 2019 and finished 5th in the six-nation meet, beating only Sri Lanka by 2-0 goals.
