Team India captured the Asian Champions Trophy, defeated China, and won the title for the 5th time.

The Indian hockey team has once again won the Asian Champions Trophy title. Team India won this title for the second time in a row and fifth time overall by defeating China 1-0 in the final. Jugraj Singh scored the only goal of the final for Team India. Team India defeated the host in the final held on Tuesday 17 September in this tournament being played in Hulunbuir, China. In this way, India won the title of the tournament by defeating China in the first and last matches of the tournament. Pakistan won the bronze medal by defeating South Korea.

After defeating China 3-0 in the first match of the tournament, the Indian team led by Harmanpreet Singh won the title by winning 7 consecutive matches including the final. Team India neither lost nor drew a single match. However, in the final held on Tuesday evening, Team India had to struggle hard for victory. For the first time in the entire tournament, the Indian team failed to score a goal in the beginning and had to wait till the last 10 minutes to penetrate the opponent's goalpost.

China gave tough competition.

Team India was considered a contender for the title from the very beginning and given the way the team performed in the league stage and semi-finals, an easy win was expected in the final as well. However, China did not let this happen and performed better than expected in the matches of this tournament. In the semi-finals, it defeated Pakistan 2-0 in the penalty shootout. In the final too, it gave a tough fight to Team India and did not allow any goal to be scored for 50 minutes.

This match also seemed to be heading towards a penalty shoot-out but in the 51st minute the 'China wall' finally fell. A brilliant pass from Abhishek reached Jugraj in China's 'D' and this defender showed a glimpse of his attacking game and scored a powerful shot in China's goal, giving Team India a 1-0 lead. The score remained the same till the end and India won this title for the fifth time.

Fifth-time champion

In this way, India won this title for the fifth time. This tournament started in 2011 and Team India became the champion in the very first season. After this, India also won the title in 2016. In 2018, India and Pakistan were declared joint winners. Then in 2023, Team India won the title for the fourth time and now Team India has become Asian champion for the second consecutive time and fifth time in total. In this way, by winning the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics, Team India has maintained its success streak.