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Dubai: The UAE defeated China 5-0 in the last match of Group A in the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers at Jumeirah beach park in Dubai on Thursday night.
The UAE topped Group A with six points from two straight wins and were scheduled to meet Iran, second in Group B, in the second semifinal late last night.
Japan, meanwhile, beat Iran, following a penalty shootout after both teams levelled at 1-1 at the end of the third period in the last match of Group B on Thursday. Japan topped Group B and were to meet China, who finished second in Group A, in the first semifinal last night.
The final will be held tonight. The third-place playoff will be held before the final. The top three teams will qualify for the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup finals, to be held in Marseille from July 17-27.
UAE, the defending champions, will be looking to repeat last year's success when they clinched the Asian title and qualified for the first time for the World Cup finals in Brazil.
After the first period ended goalless, the UAE, led by skipper Bakhit Sa'ad, came up with a powerful showing in the second and third periods to score five goals. The Chinese failed to break through the strong UAE defence. Good goalkeeping also denied the Chinese any scoring opportunities. Rami Abdullah, Haydar Abbas, Sa'ad, Ali Mubarak and Qambar Ali scored for UAE.
'Good tactics'
"We played with good tactics during the three periods, although we failed to score in the first. The players scored five goals and could have done even better," said the UAE coach, Marcelo Mendes. "We respect all the teams who have reached the semifinals, but we are looking to win the title for the second successive year," Marcelo added.
In the other match on Thursday night, both the Japanese and Iranian defenders and goalkeepers were outstanding. Shusei Yamauchi, the top scorer in the qualifiers, scored for Japan, while Mohammad Ahmad Zadeh levelled for Iran. In the shootouts, Yamauchi scored for Japan, but Fareed Boulokbashi failed for Iran kick to concede the top place in Group B to Japan.
Today's matches: From 8pm: Third-place playoff, followed by the final.
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