Courtesy: The Peninsula Qatar

Qatar bow out of futsal without a win

by RIZWAN REHMAT

BANGKOK: Iran trounced Qatar 11-0 to reach the semi-finals of the futsal competition in the first Asian Indoor Games here yesterday. Iran led 5-0 at half-time and pumped in another six goals in the second half.

Qatar, who lost to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in the pre-quarter-finals stage, came close to scoring on numerous occasions, but failed to find the net against their much superior opponents.

The hero of the day was the Iranian captain Vahid Shamsaie, who scored six goals, including five in a row in the second half.

Shamsaie was well supported by Magid Latifi, Hossein Soltani, Maged Raise, Kazem Mohamadi and Magid Tikdarinejad with one goal each to complete Qatar’s misery.

Qatar’s coach Mohammed Ali praised Shamsaie for his six-goal effort. He said: “He was very good and was always involved with some move or the other. He was very impressive.”

Ali said Shamsaie’s superb display upset his team’s plan. “We had planned to restrict Shamsaie’s movement, but he was too good for us. We knew he was Iran’s spearhead. He is the only one with the goal-scoring skills from dead situations. He is solely responsible for their team’s success in this tournament so far,” he said.

Ali’s counterpart, Brazilian Jurandir Dutra, also praised his team.

“Everything went according to our plan. We had hopes of scoring at least 10 goals and we got them. It is always very pleasing to see your plans come true.”

Dutra, who has been coaching Iran since March this year, said his players could raise their performance in the semi-finals.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com