Iran booked their place in the second round of the FIFA Futsal World Cup with a 3-2 victory over Czech Republic at the Gimnasio Nilson Nelsen.

The Czechs needed a victory to ensure their place in the last eight, but they faced an in-form Iran side who fully deserved their win. Prompted by the lively Vahid Shamsaee and Mostafa Tayyebi, the west Asians dominated play from the outset, forcing opposing goalkeeper Tomas Meller into some early action.

The deadlock was broken after 17 minutes when Ali Hassanzadeh turned the ball in from a corner kick. Czech Republic's best chance of the half came with seconds of the first half remaining when Robert Mares brought a stunning reflex save from Mostafa Nazari.

Somewhat against the run of play, the Europeans found themselves level in the 28th minute when Lukas Resetar supplied Jan Janovsky who made no mistake. They could have found themselves ahead a minute later, but Martin Dlouhy fluffed his chance with only Nazari to beat.

Arguably the man of the match, Shamsaee put Iran ahead with nine minutes to play, but parity was restored just seconds later when Dlouhy made amends for his earlier miss.

The Czechs needed a win to advance to the next stage and so substituted their goalkeeper to pile more pressure on the Iranians. However, the plan backfired when Hassanzadeh fired the ball into the empty net to sent his team through and his opponents out.

David Fric, Czech Republic player
It was a pretty even game against Iran. We played well but it just wasn’t our day today. We could have very easily reached the second round.

Hossein Shams, Iran coach
Our goal now is to reach the semi-final. We have to play Brazil and that’s going to be a difficult task
First round

 

In Group D, Czech Republic took a step closer to realising their quest of reaching the second round of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008 by defeating Libya 4-2 at the Maracanazinho in an entertaining match.

The enthusiastic crowd in Rio had to wait a full seven minutes for the first goal due to some fine goalkeeping from Mohamed Alsharif in the Libya goal who made two spectacular saves to deny Roman Mares and Jan Janovsky. However, he was powerless to stop Michal Mares' spot-kick, awarded after Janovsky was felled in the box by Mohamed Suleiman.

Czech Republic doubled their advantage eight minutes later due to a rare goalkeeping error from Alsharif, who failed to hold on to a Marek Kopecky's shot, which slid into the net. The goal spurred Libya into action and they pulled one back two minutes before half-time through Yousef Mohamed.

Four minutes after the re-start, Libya were level, with Mohamed Rahoma's delicious effort restoring parity, but the Asians' joy was short-lived as just two minutes later, Martin Dlouhy put his team back on top. Libya almost grabbed an equaliser when Rahoma's goalbound effort was blocked on the line by Jiri Novotny with the ‘keeper beaten. Then in the 39th minute, Tomas Sluka scored to seal the game's fate.

Libya now leave the tournament without winning a game, but have won plenty of admirers for the way they played, while Czech Republic travel to Brasilia on Thursday to face Iran in a game which will seal their fate in the tournament.

Spain broke open a close game by scoring three goals in three minutes early in the second half en route to a 4-0 victory over the Czech Republic at FIFA Futsal World Cup on Sunday.

Javi Rodriguez lifted Spain to a 1-0 lead in the opening minute of the Group C match at the Maracanazinho. With just eight seconds on the clock, Torras' goalbound effort was well saved by Tomas Meller, but he was powerless to stop Spain's No7 following up with the rebound. For the remainder of the half, the Czechs were grateful to their goalkeeper who kept Spain at bay.

Spain struck quickly in the opening minutes of the second half to put the game beyond doubt. Marcelo scored in the 21st minute, Daniel converted a penalty kick a minute later before Marcelo found the back of the net in the 23rd minute.

Czech Republic got their FIFA Futsal World Cup campaign off to a flying start with a convincing 4-1 victory over Uruguay at the Maracanazinho.

From the first whistle, it was obvious that this would be a closely fought match and while Czech Republic shaded the game in terms of possession, the final score was not a true reflection of the even encounter in Rio de Janeiro.

With Uruguay switching off at the back, Roman Mares had the game's first real chance and after eight minutes it was the same player who gave his side the lead. That lasted for just nine minutes when Seba's scored from a rebounf.

Tomas Sluka made it 2-1 to Czech Republic five minutes after the re-start, but the goal appeared to galvanise Uruguay, who abandoned their counter-attacking tactics and went on the offensive. But as they poured men forward, gaps appeared at the back and Zdenek Slama took advantage of a wonderful assist by Mares to restore their two-goal cushion.

The South Americans never gave up but found Czech keeper Tomas Meller in inspired form and the final minute of an entertaining match provided even more drama when David Filinger scored from the second penalty spot and Pablo Lanza was dismissed for a second bookable offence.

First round

Czech Republic - Uruguay

4:1 (1:1)

Match	Date	Venue / Stadium	Time	Attendance
16	03 October 2008	Rio De Janeiro / Gimnasio Maracanazinho	12:30	3293