Action from Kyrgyzstan-Lebanon match. Photo by: AFC/Kumiko Nakagawa

AMAGASAKI: Kyrgyzstan made it to the last four stage of the AFC Futsal Championship for the third consecutive time beating Lebanon 3-2 in extra-time here on Thursday. Surprise quarterfinalists Lebanon made Kyrgyzstan toil hard as both the teams failed to break the deadlock in the first half. Andrey Pestryakov scored a brace in the 23rd and 24th minutes to give the Central Asians a 2-0 lead but Hayssam Atwi reduced the deficit two minutes later when he back-heeled a Khaled Takaji pass into the net and Takaji restored the parity for Lebanon six minutes before the final whistle on a pass from Mahmoud Tani. Almost immediately Kyrgyzstan stormed back and Nurjan Djetybaev made a wonderful pass to an unmarked Jenish Mamatov whose shot was stopped by an alert Rabie El Khaki. Daniar Abdyraimov scored the match-winner for Kyrgyzstan in extra-time. Lebanon coach Dory Zakhour said: "We had many chances to score but we couldn't finish them. We will start a futsal league to improve our standard.” Kyrgyzstan coach Nurtazin Djetybaev said: "We purposely played counter attack in the first half. I watched Lebanon matches and I knew they get tired in the second half. The strategy worked well as the Lebanese players were tired." In the semifinals on Friday, Kyrgyzstan will take on defending champions Japan, who defeated Thailand 9-6 in another quarter-final.