(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-10 08:46

China moved closer to the final of the four-nation hockey tournament with a 2-1 victory over Malaysia here on Thursday.

Malaysian Boon Huat Chua scored the 49th-minute goal after a goalless first half followed by Chinese Yu Yang's equaliser eight minutes later.

Hu Liang snatched the field goal on 69th minute to lock the victory after waves of cheers from Chinese fans .

China will face Australia on Saturday, which tied Pakistan 2-2 earlier the day.

"Malaysia's ranking is much higher than us in the world so it's lucky for us to win the game," said coach Kim Sangryul.

"China's next rival would be Australia, the world's strongest. But we will try our best to win however low the chances are," said Kim.

China will have an encounter with Australia on Saturday and Malaysia will face Pakistan at the third round preliminaries.