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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
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