Faizal accepts defeat, as India outclass Malaysia for Asiad gold

GIFU: Veteran hockey forward Faizal Saari admitted that India were just a class above after Malaysia were trounced 5-1 by the former in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games final here today.

Harmanpreet Singh opened the scoring via an 11th minute penalty corner at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium, only for Shello Silverius to put Malaysia level through open play just three minutes later.

But it was all India from then on, scoring through Jugraj Singh in the 23rd (penalty corner), Hardik Singh in the 42nd (penalty), Shilanand Lakra in the 54th before Harmanpreet fired home from another penalty corner in the 57th.

A visibly disappointed Faizal said his team did their best to keep India at bay.

"We knew that India would be the favourites and we had studied their game. We tried our best to close them down," said Faizal.

"We tried to neutralise their pace and it worked for us in the first half.

"I believe we did well in the first and second quarters but we were unable to continue that momentum until the end of the match.

"I accept that this was as far as we could go. I am grateful to reach the final itself."

A victory over India would have delivered the gold medal to Malaysia and guaranteed an automatic slot for LA2028, which was among the national squad's primary targets.

The defeat sees Malaysia miss out on gold once again, having previously fallen 2-0 to Pakistan in the 2010 final and losing to Japan on penalties in the 2018 edition after squandering a 5-2 lead.