Asian Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers 2018: Indian men's and women's teams qualify for semifinals with big wins
Vivek Sagar Prasad seems to have developed a penchant for scoring early goals. He did so on Thursday by scoring the opening goal against Japan and repeated the feat twice on Friday against both Hong Kong-China and South Korea. The skipper scored a total of 7 goals on the day, as the Indian men marched ahead with huge victories. The Indian women too beat Thailand later in the day.
With these wins, both the men's and women's teams have qualified for the semifinal.
Two big wins on day 3 for Indian junior men
India's first match was against Hong Kong-China and they wasted little time in finding the net with Vivek Sagar scoring in the first and the fourth minutes. Rahul Kumar Rajbhar added another in the fourth and Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem joined the party with a goal in the sixth. Mohd. Alishan scored a hattrick in the space of 2 minutes with a couple of goals in the seventh minute and a third in the eighth.
Vivek Sagar earned a hattrick in the 22nd minute, while Mohd. Alishan added three more to his tally scoring in the 17th, 18th, and 30th minutes. Yashdeep Siwach, Sanjay, and Shivam Anand also scored hattricks and the final scoreline read 21-0 in favour of India.
Jude Felix's boys were on the field in the afternoon as well against a South Korean side that offered significantly more resistance than Hong Kong-China did, but went down 12-5 to the indomitable Indians.
The skipper scored in the second minute to put India ahead and found the net in the eighth, 16th, and 22nd minute as well. It was Maninder Singh's turn to register a hattrick this time, after he found the target in the ninth, 17th, and 30th minute. Mohd. Alishan added his name to the scoresheet with a goal in the sixth minute, while Rahul Kumar and Sanjay scored a brace each.
The South Koreans scored five times with goals from Song, Bae, Jang, Cheon Min, and Jeong but the Indians still managed to romp home with a comfortable 7 goal margin winning 12-5.
The team will meet either Pakistan or Bangladesh in the last four.
Women beat Thailand 9-0
The Indian women had beaten South Korea 10-0 on Friday and were just as relentless against Thailand on Friday.
Mumtaz Khan scored a hattrick while Sangita Kumari scored a brace. Lalremsiani, Deepika, and Ishika too found the target.
The Indian women coached by Baljit Singh Saini have thus qualified for the semifinal and will play Malaysia on Saturday.