United Arab Emirates recorded their second win in their 2017 AFC Beach Soccer Championship campaign with an 8-1 victory over Qatar in Group C in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia yesterday.
The win is an encouraging victory for the UAE who the day before opened their campaign with an emphatic 6-0 win over Iraq.
Rapid goals by Waleed Salem and Ali Mohamed on three minutes put the Emiratis in front before Abbas Daryaei took it up to 3-0.
An own goal by Rashid al-Jassim then helped further the Emirates’ cause and Salem then scored his second and the Emirates’s fifth with a wonderful bicycle kick on the buzzer.
Haitham Mohamed opened the second period with a close-range strike before Fawaz Daoud fired into the unguarded post for Qatar’s first goal on 22 minutes.
Ahmed Salem then opened the third period with his goal before skipper Walid Mohamed easily tapped in their eighth to hand the Qataris their second straight loss in the tournament.
In the other Group C game, Japan claimed their second win after they crushed Iraq 11-2.
The win maintained Mendes Marcelo’s side top of the group above the UAE.
It did not take long for Japan to open their account with a Takaaki Oba double before Takuya Akaguma scored Japan’s third in the match, his fourth in the tournament, with a gentle side-foot nudge.
Akaguma again scored as he beautifully connected with a Hiroaki Iso precision corner and headed home before another header, this time by Takasuke Goto, closed the first period with a 5-0 score-line.
The second period started with a Shingo Terukina goal but Iraq replied with their first shortly after when Hussein Ibrahim fired home from a distance, before Japan scored again with a Shotaro Haraguchi angle strike to end the second period.
Oba duly registered his third on the restart to make it 8-1 before the period saw another powerful scissors kick this time by Jun Sakata shortly after.
Mustafa Mohamed then cut the deficit for Iraq but Japan answered with a strike by Brazilian-born Ozu Moreira, registering his fifth in the competition.
Oba then struck his fourth and Japan’s 11th after connecting with a Goto back-heel pass as the game ended and consigned the Iraqis to their second straight defeat in the competition.
The top three finishers at the AFC Beach Soccer Championship will represent Asia at the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in in Nassau, Bahamas from April 27 to May 7.
In Group A, Bahrain grabbed their third straight win, beating Afghanistan 6-4, while the Iranians whipped China PR 10-0.
The semi-final ticket from Group B is now up for grabs between Lebanon and defending champions Oman after the former opened their campaign with an emphatic 6-1 win over Thailand.
The Lebanese will play Oman in today’s decider while Thailand, who have suffered their second loss in the competition, are now heading home after a fine fight against their last opponents in the three-team group.