China, South Korea earn easy wins

RANCHI: China put their loss against India behind and romped to a 4-0 victory against Malaysia in their Asian Champions Trophy game at Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astro Turf Hockey Stadium here on Tuesday.
Jiaqi Zhong continued her goal-scoring spree and scored her second hat-trick of the tournament to top the goal-scoring charts with seven goals. Meirong Zou was the other scorer of the match.
Although Malaysia were able to earn a draw against South Korea in their last game, they failed to put any pressure on the Chinese team as they ran away with the game.So much was China's domination in the first half that they made 12 circle penetrations compared to Malaysia's none. As far as penalty corners are concerned, they earned 13 and converted three.
Malaysia were able to keep China in check in the last half but it wasn't enough to keep them from winning their second game of the tournament and booking a place in the last-four stage.
Earlier in the day, South Korea bagged an easy 3-0 win against Thailand to confirm their spot in the semifinals. After four matches they have seven points with two wins, one loss and one draw.
Yujin Lee scored the opener in 24th, CheYoung Jung doubled it six minutes later and Seungae Park made it 3-0 two minutes into the third quarter. Despite their easy win, they were poor from the penalty corners. Although they won six, they could score from it just once and it is something that will worry coach Jin Soo Han ahead of their game against India on Thursday.