History was created here on Thursday as Malaysia set up a summit clash with Japan to decide the new men's Asian Games Hockey champion by nosing aside the defending champions India and former champions Pakistan in semifinals on Thursday.
It is for the first time that the Asian Games men's hockey final will be played without either India or Pakistan.
While Malaysia stroked out India in sudden death in penalty shoot out 6-7 after a 2-2 draw in the regulation period, Japan beat Pakistan by a solitary goal by Shota Yamada.
Interestingly while the pool games saw a flood of goals, teams running for medals encountered acute shortage of goals in the knock out round.
Now India and Pakistan will play on Saturday for the bronze medal as both have failed to gain direct entry to the 2020 Olympic Games.
The win for Japan was all the more credible as it had beaten Korea in the last pool game to make a surprise entry to semi finals.It will be Japan's first final in Asian Games.
The summit clash is scheduled for Saturday.
