Hockey team take on Pakistan today

Bangladesh hockey team are looking forward to completing their Asia Cup campaign with an improved performance when they take on Pakistan in the 5th-6th place-deciding match in Jakarta, Indonesia today.

The match begins at 12:30pm Bangladesh time.

Bangladesh, who recently improved their world ranking from29 to 27, have already achieved their initial target of finishing sixth among eight participating nations after beating handing a 4-2 defeat to hosts Indonesia in the previous match.

Bangladesh have never beaten Pakistan, who failed to qualify for the Super 4s and are fighting for the fifth place. Pakistan beat Iman Gobinathan Krishnamurthy's charges 6-2 in Asian Champions Trophy in 2021 and 7-0 in Asia Cup in 2017, both held in Dhaka.

Asked if it was possible to finish fifth, Krishnamurthy told the Daily Star: "Not easy, but anything is possible. Pakistan are wounded tigers. They will come at us from the start. We need to be very cautious. The boys need to follow the plan. If we follow emotion, we will lose big."

The Malaysian coach is apparently happy to have achieved the target even though they had to fight hard against Indonesia.

"As a realistic target, we wanted to beat Oman because they beat us in the Asian Games Qualifiers. We were also upset the way we gave away goals against Malaysia," Krishnamurthy said.