GIFU: Veteran hockey forward Faizal Saari admitted that India were just a class above after Malaysia were trounced 5-1 by the former in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games final here today.
Harmanpreet Singh opened the scoring via an 11th minute penalty corner at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium, only for Shello Silverius to put Malaysia level through open play just three minutes later.
But it was all India from then on, scoring through Jugraj Singh in the 23rd (penalty corner), Hardik Singh in the 42nd (penalty), Shilanand Lakra in the 54th before Harmanpreet fired home from another penalty corner in the 57th.
A visibly disappointed Faizal said his team did their best to keep India at bay.
"We knew that India would be the favourites and we had studied their game. We tried our best to close them down," said Faizal.
