Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Tashkent: Waleed Khalid and Saif Abdulmalek each scored braces as a strong second-half performance saw Iraq seal a 6-1 victory over China in the opening Group B contest of the AFC Futsal Championship at Universal Stadium on Wednesday.
Khalid (pictured) put Iraq in front before Hussein Ali doubled the lead, although Wang Hongmei pulled a goal back almost immediately after to leave the score 2-1 at the break.
In the second half, Iraq proved too much for China, though, as a strike from Rafid Hameed, Khalid's second and Abdulmalek's double secured them the win and put them in a strong position ahead of their clash with Jordan on Friday.
“Although we started slowly we got stronger and stronger and were able to use effective power-plays in the second half to finish off the match," said Iraq coach Haitham Abbas.
“We showed our mental strength to not let China find a way back and this was an aggressive performance that showed our lack of fear.”
The match began in a cautious manner with both sides content to sit deep inside their own half before Khalid drove home the opening goal on 13 minutes.
Khalid broke at pace from deep and launched a strong shot that flew into the bottom right hand side of Zhu Bei’s goal.
Five minutes later they doubled their lead with captain Ali capitalizing on some loose marking from a corner to deliver a powerful shot from near the halfway line that had Zhu well beaten.
China responded barely sixty seconds later as Zhao Liang fed Wang who unleashed a well-struck right-footed effort that flew past the despairing dive of Mohammed Noor to make it 2-1 to Iraq at the break.
Six minutes after the re-start Iraq extended their lead when the impressive Hameed won possession with a sliding tackle, fed Khalid who in turn passed the ball back for Hameed to loft a shot that made it 3-1.
Midway through the half, captain Ali played a delightful ball that split two Chinese defenders and left Khalid with a simple tap-in at the back post that made it 4-1 to the West Asian team.
Abdulmalek, playing as an outfield goalkeeper, scored barely ten seconds after replacing Neamah with five minutes left on the clock and completed his brace in the 38th minute after some good lead-up work from Hasan Jabbar.
“We knew how Iraq would play and we prepared for that but unfortunately we lost the first goal," said China coach Shan Zhiping.
"That led us to start chasing the game and played into their hands but the final score didn’t represent the quality of the two teams.”
Photo: AFC