Courtesy: Fox News Latino


Kazakhstan eliminated from Futsal World Cup; Iran stuns Brazil

September 22, 2016

MEDELLIN – Kazakhstan was unable to further extend its strong run at the Futsal World Cup, falling 5-2 in the round of 16 to two-time champion Spain.

Wednesday night's match at the Ivan de Beodut Coliseum in this northwestern city fully lived up to the expectations of Spanish coach Venancio Lopez, who had said he was anticipating a tight and extremely difficult contest.

Both teams scored early on in this rematch of the Futsal Euro 2016 semifinal (played in February and also won by Spain), with Sergio Lozano blasting a free kick past goalkeeper Higuita in the third minute and then Kazakhstan's Chingiz Yessenamanov equalizing two minutes later when he pounced on a rebound off a powerful shot from Higuita, who had come forward.

Kazakhstan settled into the match after knotting the score at 1-1 and managed to disrupt the European champion's play for most of the rest of the first half.

But shortly after the intermission Bebe put Spain on top once again when he completed a play set up by Mario Rivillos, and then Higuita was forced to save shot attempts by Lozano, Miguelin and Bebe to keep Kazakhstan within striking distance.

Spain seemed to be on the verge of scoring again, but instead Dauren Nurgozhin notched a goal for Kazakhstan that tied the match at 2-2 with around 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

The Spaniards then finished the game by scoring three unanswered goals, the first of which came when a defensive blunder set up a shot that ricocheted off of Nurgozhin and into the Kazakh goal.

But the 5-2 final score was misleading because net minder Paco Sedano's timely interventions were needed to keep the Kazakhs from equalizing yet another time.

There was also controversy when the referees disallowed an apparent goal by Lozano and then sent him off for fouling Higuita. It was an especially rough sequence for the Spaniard because he was injured on the play.

The Kazakhs desperately tried to tie the contest, but throwing caution to the wind left them vulnerable to counterattacks by the shorthanded Spaniards, who got goals from Raul Campos and Miguelin in the closing seconds of the match.

Next up for the Spaniards in Saturday's quarterfinals will be Russia, which routed Vietnam on Tuesday.

In other action Wednesday night, Iran stunned the only other nation to have won a Futsal World Cup - five-time champion and top-ranked Brazil - in a penalty shootout.

That game, played in Bucaramanga, was tied 4-4 after regulation play and two extra times. Iran won the penalty shootout 3-2 and will next take on Paraguay in the quarterfinals.

In one other round of 16 match Wednesday night, Portugal blanked Costa Rica 4-0 and will next play either Thailand or Azerbaijan.


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