Iran and Thailand continue march

Dubai There were no major upsets in the quarter-finals of the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship as the favourites marched on, along the way booking their spots for the 2012 Fifa Futsal World Cup to be held later this year in Bangkok, Thailand.

Down by two early goals, this year's World Cup hosts rallied splendidly to carve out a gutsy 5-2 win over a nervous Lebanon as hot favourites and ten-time Asian champions Iran got past Uzbekistan 6-3 in a repeat of the Asian final in 2010.

The other two semi-final spots were claimed later in the evening by Japan with a narrow 1-0 win over Kyrgyzstan, while Australia lived up to expectations to beat Kuwait 3-2 in extra-time.

With Thailand qualifying as hosts for the Fifa Futsal World Cup, today's semi-finals will see top-ranked Iran play No 2 Thailand, while third ranked Japan will battle it out against fifth-ranked Australia after No4 Uzbekistan had gone out against Iran.

Kuwait, however, also earned a ticket to this year's Fifa Futsal World Cup as they ended with a smaller goal difference in yesterday's quarter-finals. Bangkok will play host to the 7th Fifa Futsal World Cup featuring the best 24 teams from across the world from November 1-18.

Lebanon looked headed for their maiden World Cup appearance as they went clear on a couple of strikes from Kassem Kawsan within the opening four minutes. But the young Thais — runners-up in 2008 and quarter-finalists in 2007 and 2010 — just kept their calm and poise to slam in five unanswered goals to walk away winners.

"This young team is like a diamond and they will go far in the next four to six years," said Thailand's Dutch coach Hermans Victor Jacobus.

"Iran has the speed and fitness especially from their professional players, but I believe the match starts 0-0 and we will see how we can beat Iran. I think it is possible," he added.

‘No pressure'

"When we came to this tournament, everyone said that Thailand can play easy as they have no pressure of qualifying [for the World Cup]. After we reached the quarter-finals everyone said we can take it easy against Lebanon as we have nothing to prove. But these young boys wanted to go out there and prove a point, and they did exactly that."

The final and play-off for third place will be held on Friday following a rest day tomorrow.

Results

Thailand bt Lebanon 5-3

Iran bt Uzbekistan 6-3

Japan bt Krygyzstan 1-0

Australia bt Kuwait 3-2

Fixtures

Today's semi-finals: (Both games at Al Wasl Club) (3.30 pm) Iran vs Thailand; (6.30 pm) Japan vs Australia.