South Korea’s Hyun Jong-jang celebrates after scoring against India in Moenchengladbach on Monday

Moenchengladbach: India’s agonising sequence of conceding late goals continued to haunt the team as they suffered a stunning 1-2 defeat against South Korea in a Pool B encounter of the men’s hockey World Cup on Monday.

The Indians, seeking to record their first win in the high-profile tournament, frittered away a second-half lead as their opponents struck twice in the last seven minutes to clinch the match at the Warsteiner Hockey Park.

A last-minute penalty corner conversion by Jong Hyn-jang ensured that Vasudevan Baskaran’s men remained winless after four matches, having managed only a draw against South Africa.

After a barren opening session, India shot into the lead through Shivendra Singh (46th) who took his tally to four goals in as many matches. But, the euphoria was short-lived as the Koreans, who were far from impressive, found the equaliser through Jang (63rd) in the dying minutes.

The defeat means that India would now have to contend for a position between 9th and 12th spots.

India yielded ground under tremendous pressure that saw the Koreans force seven penalty corners in the second-half as against two in the first and Jang’s two conversions provided Korea their third win in four matches for a tally of 10 points.

Having lost to Germany and England and drawn with South Africa, india put in a determined performance, but on the day, their best was not enough. India have just one point and are scheduled to play The Netherlands on Tuesday in their concluding league fixture.