Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Taipei: Japan will go into the AFC Futsal Championship 2018 quarter-finals as Group B winners after they maintained their 100 percent record following a 4-2 win over Group B runners-up Uzbekistan on Monday.
With both teams coming into the tie at the University of Taipei Gymnasium on the back of consecutive wins the action began in closely-fought fashion, before Uzbekistan opened the scoring within the third minute.
Farkhod Abdulmaylanov was found on the left by goalkeeper Rustam Umarov and the No 8 tricked his way past Rafael Henmi before curling the ball past Japan custodian Higor Pires into the far corner of the goal.
Koichi Saito went close to a swift reply with long range rocket that rattled Umarov’s left-hand upright and, with a little over 10 minutes of the first half remaining, Ryosuke Nishitani was inches away from sliding home Kaoru Morioka’s low cross, before Kazuya Shimizu also hit the woodwork with a flick from close range.
Japan, though, needed less than a minute of the restart to draw parity as Morioka slammed home his sixth goal of the tournament from the edge of the area after Dilshod Rakhmatov was penalised for a back-pass.
And another set-piece saw Japan take the lead three minutes later as Shota Hoshi turned in Shimizu’s ball into the box.