Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Terengganu: Afghanistan claimed their second 2017 AFC Beach Soccer Championship Group A win on Sunday after whipping China PR 7-2 in Group A in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
It proved to be a hard-fought contest between the two sides after Afghanistan’s encouraging 5-3 opening win over hosts Malaysia while China lost 5-0 to inaugural winners Bahrain on Saturday.
Afghanistan’s Sami Ullah Mohammadi opened the scoring on three minutes with his first goal of the competition, before goalkeeper Baktash Akbari expertly saved a Cai Weiming free-kick to deny China an equaliser.
China did, however, level matters on 11 minutes thanks to Qiu Hao's strike, only to see hotshot Raof Qaderi restore Afghanistan's lead with his fourth goal of the tournament a minute later.
Captain Zainuddin Sharifi made it 3-1 for Afghanistan when his strike bounced off custodian's Jiang Wen Tao’s feet and into the net, but China struck back almost immediately through Liu Yi-si to continue the game's topsy turvy nature.
Mohammadi duly registered his second of the match in the 17th minute, before Qaderi bagged two more to claim a second successive hat-trick for Rohullah Rastagar's side and effectively end the game as a contest.
Hamidullah Gulzar rounded off the scoring on 35 minutes as free-scoring Afghanistan continued their fine start to 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 Nassau, Bahamas from April 27 to May 7.
Photo: AFC