Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Bangkok: Reigning champions Islamic Republic of Iran passed their first real test of the tournament to advance to the AFC Women’s Futsal Championship 2018 final four with a 4-2 win over China PR in a high-quality quarter-final on Wednesday.
Goals to Tian Jiao and Zhang Yue had the East Asians 2-1 ahead on the verge of half-time, but a Fereshteh Karimi-led Iran took the lead in the first minute of the second half and closed the game out with a late Sara Shirbeigi goal.
Shahrzad Mozafar’s charges will now meet Vietnam in tomorrow’s semi-finals, while China’s promising tournament ends at the quarter-final stage.
Iran had piled up 23 goals in their previous two matches, and in the opening moments they picked up from where they had left off in the group stage as Karimi and Shierbegi both went close.
Karimi gave the reigning champions an early lead when she fired home from a free-kick in the second minute, but China took just a minute to respond, as Tian Jiao met Zeng Qingqing’s inch perfect cross to fire home a wonderful header.
www.the-afc.com/en/more/photo/china-futsal-goal.html
www.the-afc.com/en/more/photo/iran-china-futsal-semi.html
