Dhaka: Holders Bangladesh emerged Pool A champion to reach the semifinal of the eight-nation 5th Men’s Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) Cup with all-win record crushing all-losers Macau by 13-0 goals in their 3rd and last group match at the King’s Park Hockey ground in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Bangladesh clearly led the first half by 6-0 goals.

Ashraful made a hat-trick scoring five goals, all from penalty corners, while Sarwar Hossain struck three, Roman Sarkar two and Hasan Jubair, Moinul Islam Kawshik and Khorshedur Rahman scored one goal each for the winners.

Bangladesh, which eye eyes on the 3rd consecutive AHF Cup title, will play the first semifinal on Saturday (Nov 26) at 2 pm (Bangladesh Times). 

Earlier, two times champions Bangladesh confirmed the semifinal berth from Pool A with one match to spare beating Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei by equal 4-2 goals in the group engagements.

The day’s other match between hosts Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei ended in 3-3 draw at the same venue. 

In the other Group A matches, Chinese Taipei beat Macau by 2-0 goals while hosts Hong Kong outplayed Macau by 5-1 goals.

In Group B, Singapore played 3-3 draw with Sri Lanka while Thailand shared points with Uzbekistan in 1-1 affairs at the same venue on Tuesday. 

In the other group B matches on Sunday, Singapore beat Thailand by 2-1 goals while Sri Lankan outplayed Uzbekistan by 7-2 goals at the same venue. 

Bangladesh were put in Group-A with Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau while Group-B team consists of Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uzbekistan.