Source: The-AFC.com

Thailand’s Chonburi Bluewave will face Sanaye Giti Pasand of Iran in the AFC Club Futsal Championship 2013 final following their 5-2 semi-final win over Shenzhen Nanling at the Ocean Arena on Saturday.

Thai internationals Suphawut Thueanklang and Tanakorn Santanaprasit scored a brace each for the Thai side who had defeated the same side twice during the qualifiers played in April in Malaysia.

Rudimar Venancio put Chonburi 1-0 ahead in the 3rd minute but Zhuang Jianfa scored the equalizer in the 7th minute.

It just took one minute for the Thai champions to regain the lead after Thueanklang put them ahead in the 8th minute.

In a swashbuckling first half, the rampant Thais scored three more goals with Thueanklang notching his second in the 15th minute. Both the goals Santanaprasit scored came in the 16th minute as Chonburi went 5-1 in front in the action-packed first half.

But having taken a giant four-goal lead, the Thais were happy to concentrate on not giving spaces for the Chinese who scored their second consolation goal in the 40th minute through Iran international Masoud Daneshvar.

Chonburi will take on Sanaye Giti Pasand of Iran who earlier defeated hosts Nagoya Oceans 3-2 in the final while Shenzhen Nanling face Nagoya in the third-place playoff.

Shenzhen Nanling’s coach Adil Amarante conceded that his side was defeated by a quality opponent in the semi-final.

“We have a long way to go as we need to improve a lot to play competitive futsal against quality continental opponent,” said Amarante.

“Every mistake we had were punished by them. We resorted to power-play in the second half but it did not work.

“Anyway, to sum up it’s a great experience for our young team to come here and play futsal against quality opponents so I hope next year we will definitely become more stronger than in this campaign,” he said.

“We had a superb first half and two goals in quick succession was the turning point of this match,” Chonburi coach Pazos Mendez said after the match.

“Shenzhen were good in the beginning but we converted our chances which made the differences.

“I congratulate Shenzhen as being in semi-final is by no way an underachievement. Coach Amarante is there and he did not get enough time this time around but I am sure next year they will be one of the contenders,” he added.





FP Staff --> info@futsalplanet.com