Iran female futsallers thrash Uzbekistan in AFC championship

Iran women's national futsal team has romped to another emphatic win at the 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Futsal Championship in Malaysia, overwhelming Uzbekistan.

On Tuesday, the Iranians cruised past the Central Asian outfit 9-1 in a match played at the Nilai Indoor Stadium in the western Malaysian city of Nilai.

Iranian female futsal players made a strong start, and were attempting to score the first goal since the onset of the game. It was in the fifth minute that Fereshteh Karimi grabbed a marvelous opportunity and opened the scoring for the Persians.

Sepideh Zarrinrad doubled the lead in the 8th minute, and Mahliyo Yusupova netted the sole goal for the Uzbeks just a minute later.

In the 13th minute, Iran once again got on the score sheet as skipper Nasimeh Gholami netted a goal. Soheila Tarazi put the ball into the back of Uzbekistan’s net in the 18th minute to give the Iranian outfit a 4-1 cushion as both teams went into the breather.

Iranian futsal players maintained the lead after the interval, and Uzbekistan’s Makhliyo Sarakova scored twice into her side’s own goal within 60 seconds (in the 25th and 26th minute) to put Iran 6-1 ahead.

Sara Shirbeigi then slipped the ball past Uzbekistan goalkeeper Yuliya Ahmedova in the 29th minute to earn the title of the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals and join Malaysia’s Farahiyah Ridzuan.

Fahimeh Zarei netted a strike a minute later, and Karimi scored the ninth goal for Iran with three minutes left on the clock.

“We did very well today and I am very happy with performance from beginning to end. We had three friendlies with the Uzbek team last month and this helped us with our preparation today,” Iran coach Forouzan Soleimani said after the match.

“We expected such hard game and you can see this from the result on the scoreboard. We had a chance to play them before but I do not think this had any effect on the result today, although we can see a lot of improvement and positive effects from those friendlies. Our players are all former football players while the Iranians are originally futsal players and this made a big difference today,” Uzbekistan coach Avaz Maksumov said.

Iran women's national futsal team is scheduled to play against the hosts on Wednesday.

The 2015 AFC Women's Futsal Championship started in Nilai, Malaysia, on September 21 and will wrap up on September 26.

Iran has been drawn in Group A with Hong Kong, Malaysia and Uzbekistan. China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam form Group B.

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