India 4-1 Japan: Four Second-Half Goals Seal a Sixth ACT Title in Mohali

Japan had the champions on the ropes. For 42 minutes in Mohali, the final wasn’t going to script at all.

Kazumasa Matsumoto put Japan ahead in the third minute, and for the next half an hour India couldn’t find a way through. India burned a referral on a penalty appeal in the 12th minute, Japan missed a penalty corner early in the third quarter, and at half-time the underdogs were still 1-0 up. The crowd had gone quiet. You could feel the nerves.

Then the game turned. Shilanand Lakra equalised from a penalty corner in the 42nd minute, and only after a long video check. That was the moment the game swung. Japan had spent everything holding India out. Once the goal went in, there was no second wall.

The fourth quarter was a procession. Dilpreet Singh put India ahead in the 48th minute, Jugraj Singh buried a penalty corner in the 53rd, and Sukhjeet Singh made it 4-1 a minute later. Three goals in six minutes. The final had been a contest for three quarters and a coronation for one.

That’s a sixth Asian Champions Trophy for India, and a third in a row after 2023 and 2024. They won all seven games in Punjab, scoring 46 goals and conceding seven. Nobody else in the tournament came close to that kind of dominance, and in the end the final scoreline said so too.

For Japan, it’s a third runners-up finish to go with 2013 and 2021. They’ll take plenty from this week: a shootout win over Malaysia in the semi-final, and a disciplined defensive performance that had India stuck for 40 minutes. But the wait for a first title goes on. They led a final against India and still lost by three. That’s the gap.

Harmanpreet Singh didn’t score in the final, which almost doesn’t matter. He finished as the tournament’s top scorer on 10 goals, and his 250th international goal came in Wednesday’s 8-1 semi-final win over Korea. The captain’s job was done long before Thursday night.

India’s next assignment is the Pro League, which starts on 8 December, and Craig Fulton has already said a new-look squad will be picked for it. This title was about the present, though. Punjab got its first ACT, Mohali got a final worth the noise, and India got the one result that was expected of them all along, even if Japan made them work for it.