Jakarta: The young Indian men hockey team delivered a tough performance by beating Japan 1-0 to take the bronze medal in the Asian Cup here on Wednesday.

After missing out on a place in the title battle on goal difference after a thrilling 4-4 ​​draw with South Korea on Tuesday, defending champion India came out on purpose and scored a field goal via Raj Kumar Pal in the seventh minute of the game and then defended in numbers to seal the deal.

India started brightly and pushed hard in the first five minutes of the game, but their attacks fell once within opposition D.

However, the Indians broke the deadlock in the seventh minute with a solid counter-attack with Uttam Singh putting in all the hard work on the right flank to set it up for Rajkumar Pal, who pushed it cleanly past Japanese goalkeeper Takashi Yoshikawa.

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