Iran and China enter beach soccer semis

Dubai - Iran and China booked their places in contrasting styles at the end of the league stage of the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup qualifier at the Jumeirah Beach Club yesterday.

Iran won 8-3 against a gutsy Philippines, while China carved out a hard-fought 4-3 victory against a depleted UAE in yesterday's crucial group matches.

In today's semifinals, Bahrain will face Iran, while strong contenders Japan will meet China. One of the two losing semifinalists also has a chance of making it to the 2006 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup as Asia has been assigned three spots.

While Iran paced themselves well against a lowly Philippines, the home team fought till the very end before cementing a victory.

"I think we have learnt our lessons from the first match against Japan, and our players were quite keen they did not commit the same mistakes today," Iran coach Ahmad Athab told Gulf News.

Fielding Mohammad Ahmadzadeh and Behzad Dadashzadeh for the first time, Iran did well to end the first period with a 3-1 lead, the goals coming from skipper Reza Hassanzadeh, Ali Mirza and Ahmadzadeh. Ian Araneta scored the first-ever goal for the Philippines with a superb bicycle kick.

Ahmadzadeh scored a second time early in the second quarter, but the Philippines fought back through two quick goals from Winnie Subrere and Ian Araneta. Iran took firm control of the proceedings thereafter.

The UAE-China clash was closely contested. Playing without an injured Mohammad Ebrahim, the UAE got their goals through veteran UAE star Bakhit Sa'ad, who scored a brace and Adnan Hussain scored the third.

China struck once each through Min Qi, Shibo Huang, Jia Gao and Meng Ren.

Results
China 4 UAE 3
Iran 8 Philippines 3

Today's games (from 4pm):
Japan vs China
Bahrain vs Iran