Iran Mens Futsal advance to Semi-Finals in Ashgabat

AFC – ASGHABAT, Iran stormed into the last four of the Ashgabat 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games men’s futsal after beating Thailand 10-4 in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Shahrzad Mozafar’s men took their tally to 43 goals in the tournament as they swept past a Thailand side who couldn’t reproduce their opening half performance.

IR Iran will play Afghanistan next – who beat Turkmenistan 6-5 on penalties after 5-5 at the end of extra time – in their semi-final tie on Sunday.

IR Iran, who are unbeaten in the tournament, were down by a goal in the second minute as Thailand took the lead through Jirawat Sornwichian.

The defending champions equalized in the fifth from Mohammadreza Sangsefidi’s strike. But Thailand responded four minutes later through Sorasak Phoonjungreed.

Abolghasem Orouji hit back in the 12th to level the score at 2-2 but both teams were left with a man down in the 13th minute after Thailand’s Kritsada Wongkaeoand and Sangsefidi picked up their second yellow cards.

IR Iran however, never looked back after that, scoring four more before halftime.

“We are really good at playing three-versus-three, and especially today, we showed our skills at dribbling, we were faster than them and we took advantage of it at the one-on-one occasions,” said Ali Asghar Hassan during the three-versus-three part of the match following a red card for each team.

Goals from Ahmad Esmaeilpour (14th), Ali Asghar Hassan (18th), Tayebibidgoli Hossein (18th) and Farhad Tavakoli (19th) gave Mozafar’s men a 6-2 lead at the break.

In the second period, IR Iran were in cruise control, Hossein completed his hat-trick with strikes in the 24th and 29th minutes. Javid Mahdi took his tally to eight in the tournament with a goal in the 29th.

Moslem Oladghobad hit the 10th for IR Iran in the 28th minute while Sornwichian and Apiwat Chaemcharoen added to Thailand’s tally late in the match as Mozafar’s men ran away with the victory.

“For the first 12-14 minutes we played very well. Then we had chances. After the red card everything changed,” said Thailand coach Jose Maria Pazos Mendez.