Ukraine's 5-1 win over Egypt on Tuesday in Brasilia sees them rise to the top of Group C (tied with Argentina on seven points, but ahead on goals) at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008.

The East Europeans got off to a hot start when Sameh Saleh put through his own goal on seven minutes. Valeriy Legchanov then doubled the score from the spot in the 18th minute to make it 2-0 at the interval.

Dmytro Ivanov increased the lead to 3-0 inside the first two minutes of the second period. Mizo then hit back for the Egyptians to make it 3-1 and give a glimmer of hope to the Africans. However, Sergiy Cheporniuk hit home a penalty kick in the 31st minute and Valeriy Zamyatin added a fifth with four minutes to go and settled the affair for the impressive Europeans who outshot their opponents 25-7.

The Ukrainians - tied with Argentina at the pinnacle of Group C - are a very good bet to move on to the next round, needing only to avoid defeat against winless China PR in their final game of the section on 9 October.

Egypt won their first match at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008 following a 6-2 victory over China PR at the Gimnasio Nilson Nelson in Brasilia.

The Africans enjoyed the better start to the game and were unlucky not to take the lead as early as the fifth minute when Ahmed El Agouz hit the inside of the post. Five minutes later they did take the lead, through Ahmed Abou Serie Sameh Saleh.

Mizo doubled Egypt's advantage eight minutes later after being well set up by Abou El Komsan. A minute later, the provider turned goalscorer when his powerful shot left Tao Zheng with no chance.

Any chance of China making a comeback was swiftly snuffed out in the second half, when El Agouz bagged a brace in two minutes to take the score to 5-0. However, the Asians did pull one back in the 25th minute through Xi Zhang.

The five goal cushioned was restored just two minutes later through Saleh. With the score at 6-1, Egypt were content to play keep-ball and Jie Hu's last minute goal was little more than a consolation for China, who are without a point after two games.

Farinha, China PR coach
We didn’t deserve to win today as Egypt were technically superior to us. However, the scoreline is not a true reflection of the game, given the amount of chances we threw away.

Moafak El Sayed, Egypt coach
Today’s match was harder than our previous two. We still have a chance of reaching the next round, and we’ll be hoping the result of the Argentina-Ukraine game works in our favour.

Sergio Lopez, Argentina coach
The result was very important as it was a step towards qualification for the next round. However, we still have some work to do to improve the technical side of our game.

Moafak El Sayed, Egypt coach
The hardest thing today was knowing that we had to go out and win. This made the players nervous.