Bangladesh face China in fifth-place playoff at Hero Asian Champions Trophy today

Bangladesh face China in the fifth-place classification match of the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Punjab 2026 at the Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium in Mohali today, with the match scheduled for 2:00 PM IST (2:30 PM Bangladesh time). Bangladesh finished sixth and last in the round-robin league stage with a single point from five matches, while China finished fifth with two points. Bangladesh's campaign included heavy defeats — 0-13 to hosts India, 1-6 to Malaysia, 0-5 to South Korea and 0-1 to Japan — with their only positive result coming on Monday, 2 November, when they held China to a 1-1 draw. Today's playoff is therefore a swift rematch between the same two sides. Bangladesh, ranked 27th in the FIH rankings, are coached by German Gerhard Rach and captained by Ashraful Islam. They entered the six-team tournament as replacements after Pakistan withdrew. A win today would lift them to fifth place; anything less leaves them sixth. The two semi-finals are also scheduled for today — India vs South Korea and Japan vs Malaysia — with the final set for tomorrow, 5 November. India topped the league unbeaten with five wins, and their captain Harmanpreet Singh leads the scoring charts with nine goals. The tournament, running from 27 October to 5 November, is being staged across Jalandhar and Mohali in Punjab.