Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Chengdu: Iranian champions Dabiri Tabriz put on a five star showing in their AFC Futsal Club Championship opener with a 5-1 win over Bank of Beirut SC in the Group B tie at Shuangliu Sports Centre on Monday.
Bank of Beirut SC goalkeeper Hussein Hamadani had threatened to frustrate the Tabriz forwards with a series of spectacular saves until four minutes before the interval when Javad Asghari made the breakthrough.
Vahid Shafiei and Farid Namazi were then on target after the re-start before Ali Tneich pulled a goal back for the Lebanese club. However, Tabriz has the final say in the contest as first Farhad Fakhim and then Nasrollah Momen netted in the closing minutes of the game.
“In every tournament, winning the opening match is very important as the players are not yet fully adjusted to the conditions of the tournament – so for the first match this result was very good and I’m happy,” said Tabriz coach Hossein Shams.
“The first half we started a bit slow as we were still adapting to the game, but in the second-half I think the Lebanese team struggled with their fitness a little bit, while my team was ready for the full 40 minutes.”
Bank of Beirut SC began the game on top, though, and had early efforts on goal through Brazilian Rudolpho Da Costa as a sluggish Tabriz took a while to get into gear as their opponents hassled and harried them into errors.
However, once the Iranian side shook off their early tournament stupor, it became one-way traffic as Hamadani became the most over-worked man in the arena, putting on a goalkeeping clinic that including a sprawling full length dive to deny Namazi and a hat-trick of point-black stops from Mortteza Ezzati.
Tabriz did not have it all their own way, though, and with six remaining of the half Ali El Homsi slipped in Da Costa whose angled shot beat Alireza Samimi but clipped the near post and rolled wide.
The Bank of Beirut SC resistance was broken just two minutes later, however, as former Iran international Asghari waltzed through the centre and rifled his shot into the top left-hand corner leaving Hamadani, this time, with no chance.
And four minutes into the second period, Hamdani was picking the ball out of his net again as Shafiei doubled the advantage after the Bank of Beirut SC custodian could only divert his drilled effort across goal into the roof of the net.
The lead was then extended to three goals as Fakhim blocked shot fell kindly to Namazi who stroked the ball into the unguarded net with a little over five minutes remaining.
Bank of Beirut SC did a pull goal back less than a minute later, as a mix-up between Samimi and his defenders allowed Tneich to prod home from close-range.
But as the Lebanese club began to visibly tire in the closing minutes, Momen squared for Fakhim to side-foot past Hamdani and then same pair linked-up again with this time Fakhim the provider as Momen netted Tabriz’s fifth and final goal.
“We came here to see where we are – and now we know,” said Bank of Beirut SC coach Dejan Dedovic.
“We played a very good a first half, it was only 1-0 and we missed two or three chances.
“Unfortunately our players got tired in the second period while their strong bench helped them get the result.”