The tournament favourites India began their Asia Cup journey with a thumping victory over Japan in the Group A opener. The Indian team put up a supreme performance, completely running through the Japanese defence scoring five goals.

While the first half was a close fought encounter, both sides created chances but in the second half it was all India, Japanese completely lost the plot while India came back stronger and played with complete freedom to cement a 5-1 scoreline.

The victory also means a winning debut for Marjine as National Coach. India had four different scorers, Harmanpreet scored twice and could have got his hat-trick but for a plucky Japanese goalkeeper while Sunil, Ramandeep Singh and Latil also got themselves on the scoresheet.

India will now play on the 13th against host Bangladesh before taking on arch-rival Pakistan on 15th.