Muscat, Oct 24 - India and Malaysia confirmed their semifinal spots despite playing out a goalless draw in their Hero Asian Champions Trophy match on Tuesday. After the tussle at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, India and Malaysia have 10 points after four games and will go through irrespective of the result of their final group games.
India were clearly the better team in the first two quarters with a couple of clear goalscoring opportunities.
Dilpreet Singh had a great chance in the fifth minute that came his way after a long aerial ball from Harmanpreet Singh.
Dilpreet struggled to finish off the move slamming the ball wide off the far post.
Mandeep Singh was also in the mix along with Harmanpreet and created angles for India through the right.
Malaysia were in the attacking mode themselves in the first quarter despite India’s vigour and dynamism.
Faizal Saari and Firhan Ashaari did cause some problems for the Indian defence with their swift runs from the left wing.
Ashaari had a couple of shots that were parried by experienced Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
India received a penalty corner after making a string of raids in the Malaysia D, the PC however was not converted much to the disappointment of expectant Indian fans.
The third and fourth quarter saw a pretty even contest.
India did try pushing for the winner with captain Manpreet Singh targetting the Malaysian goal.
Malaysia launched a few attacks themselves but the much sought after winning goal remained elusive.
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