Source: Arab Times

Spanish side Santiago Futsal completed their three- match winning streak Sunday with a 2-0 victory over MNK Alumnus of Croatia on the final day of group matches as the Kuwait Mini World Futsal Tournament enters the knockout quarter final stage in Adailiya.

Alan Cuasnicu knocked in Santiago’s first goal for the Spanish champions to take an early lead even as both sides were still sizing up each other and settling into the game. Santiago wore a confident outlook, dominating proceedings in the early going, stringing out pinpoint passes to keep the ball within their fold, resulting in David Mula’s 13th minute goal to increase their lead to 2-0. All efforts by Alumnus at goal were thwarted by the Santiago’s ace keeper.
The first half ended with still no goal for Alumnus, 0-2.

The Alumnus push for goals continued into the second half with Nikola and Antonio recording near misses at goal. The two of them eventually ended with yellow cards for robust tackles in their desperation to score. Neither side failed to come up with a goal in the second half till the buzzer sounded to bail out Santiago from an all-out Alumnus onslaught in the final minutes. Game ended 2-0 for Santiago, the Spanish Futsal Club champions who succeeded in maintaining a clean slate in all three matches of the group stage from start to finish, garnering nine points to top group D.

Despite their loss to Santiago in the last match, the Croatian side still technically managed to cling on to the second spot, having recorded a win, a drawn game and a loss. They finished the group stage with five goals scored while also conceding five, resulting in a goal difference of zero and 4 points. Chonburi their closest rivals in the group also had a win, a loss as well as a drawn game but are disadvantaged in terms of goal difference where they lie a notch below the surface at -1 despite also finishing with 4 points.

Meanwhile, Thai side Chonburi squared off with Kuwait’s Kazma Club in the second match to a hard fought 3-2 win for the Thais. Sarawut Jaipich shot Chonburi into the lead in the 16th minute with Suphawut following up with another goal in the 28th. And almost immediately following the Chonburi last goal, Kazma’s Viera and Citasson scored two swift goals in the 29th and 30th minutes to equalize for the Kuwaiti side, 2-2.

At that point the Thais decided to throw the dice as a last resort, adopting power play in the final 8 minutes when both sides were tied at 2-2.

Their gamble paid off when they managed to keep possession at some point and finally drove the ball past the Kazma keeper Victor Ramos, through Madyalan in the 33rd minute for a 3-2 tie breaker which the Thais managed to maintain to the finish.

The result, however, meant neither side was advancing to the quarters. Chonburi in particular needed just a goal more to neutralize their -1 goal difference to vie with Alumnus who finished with zero goal difference to clinch the second spot. Two top teams from each group advance to the elimination stage. Alumnus thus gets on Monday’s quarter finals fixture against Bahrain’s Muharraq while Kuwait’s Qadsia faces Cardinal- Rivne of Ukraine.





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