Courtesy: -> Futsal Planet


Who will digest Matchday 1 results the best?

12 Sep 2016

The first round of matches at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016 have been played and the teams now know where they stand and what needs to be improved. In particular, Egypt can be happy with their opening performance and the North Africans' next fixture is against a Russia side that also began with a victory. FIFA.com looks ahead to Matchday 2 in groups A and B.

Match of the day
Egypt – Russia, 18:00 local time
Egypt only needed 70 seconds to get their Futsal World Cup campaign up and running, and were an impressive, focused unit against Cuba. Using a compact defence as a foundation, the Pharaohs made swift transitions and were lightning fast in attack.

However, Russia will present a rather different prospect for coach Hesham Saleh's charges. The eastern Europeans play with great physicality, but are also technically strong. It will be intriguing to see how Egypt cope with such an approach and whether they are afforded as much space as they were in their first game.

The other matches
The remaining Group B fixture pits together the two losing teams from Matchday 1. Thailand will be able to take more encouragement from their defeat to Russia than Cuba can from their own loss. The Asians played against the Futsal EURO 2016 runners-up and went close to causing an upset, whereas Cuba never got going against Egypt and are back at square one.

Both Portugal and Panama will go into the first game of the day in Group A brimming with confidence. The Iberians refused to give up in their first outing and just managed to scrape a draw, while the Central Americans were well organised against Uzbekistan and were solid at the back and clinical up front. Those qualities will be required once more against Ricardinho, Cardinal and Co.

Immediately following that match, it will be interesting to see how Colombia deal with having conceded an equaliser in the final second of their opening game. The tournament hosts would do well to focus on the previous 39 minutes, 59 seconds of that encounter, in which they competed well with Portugal. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan can reflect on a positive Futsal World Cup debut, despite losing. With a little more luck in the final third, they could pick up their first win against Colombia.

Player to watch
Abdelrahman Elashwal (EGY)
The striker only started playing futsal three years ago but has already written his name in the history books by scoring the first goal at Colombia 2016. Moreover, the 23-year-old also contributed two assists to the 7-1 victory. Perhaps he gains extra motivation from the knowledge that his fiancée is watching avidly back home and wishing him all the best.

The stat
54 – Portugal took 54 shots at Colombia's goal, more than any other team on Matchday 1. However, just 18 of those were on target and only the very last one actually went in.

The words
"At a competition at this level it's not enough to want to win or to have goalscoring opportunities. You have to put the ball in the net. That has to be our aim against Colombia." Jose Maria Pazos Mendes, Uzbekistan coach

Match schedule

Group A
Panama – Portugal (18:00, Coliseo el Pueblo, Cali)
Colombia – Uzbekistan (20:00, Coliseo el Pueblo, Cali)

Group B
Egypt – Russia (18:00, Coliseo Ivan de Bedout, Medellin)
Thailand – Cuba (20:00, Coliseo Ivan de Bedout, Medellin)

(All times given are local)


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