Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Shah Alam: Chinese side Shenzhen Nanling booked a ticket into Zone 2 semi-finals of the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2013 Qualifiers after comfortably beating Tainan City of Chinese Taipei 6-1 at the Panasonic Sports Complex on Friday.
The star-studded Chinese will take on fellow title-favourites Chonburi Bluewave on Saturday which will potentially decide the group winners and runners-up. With Chonburi taking on Pasargad later on the day, Tainan are virtually out of the competition. They will face Pasargad on Saturday.
Shenzhen, who had taken time to break the deadlock against Pasargad a day ago, took an early lead through Danilo Moura as the Brazilian dribbled past two Tainan defenders at the centre and dodged the wrong-footed Tainan goalie Pan Wen Chieh in the 3rd minute.
After a quick-fire second goal, Shenzhen were comfortably dealt with by Tainan defenders and goalkeeper. Shenzhen’s marquee signing Vahid Shamsaee came close as many as three times but he squandered all chances before finding the back of the net with a few seconds remaining in the first half as Shenzhen went into the break with a comfortable 3-0 lead.
“Yesterday (against Chonburi Bluewave) we lacked defensive ideas so there were added cautious approaches in our defence today but we struggled in the final third,” Tainan coach Lo Chih Tsung told www.the-afc.com.
“The difference today was the foreign imports of Shenzhen as these two foreign players they have are much better futsal players than the players who play at this level.
“We are virtually out but we are going back with a spirited soul and we will start the preparations for next year very soon and I hope having a couple of top foreign players would definitely help our squad,” he said.
His Shenzhen counterpart Wu Zhuoxi also had lots of praises for his foreign professionals. “It’s every coach's dream to have a player like Vahid (Shamsaee) in his team; he is powerful and skilful and a team player,” the former China national futsal team captain said.
“Danilo is a true Brazilian, he represents Brazilian futsal with precision and vision. On top of this, he has great technical skills and his conversion rate is amazing,” he said.
The pair of Shamsaee and Danilo have combined to score Shenzhen’s 10 goals so far in the competition where Shenzhen have managed 16 goals in total.
“We are in the semi-finals but the job is not done yet. Tomorrow’s match against Chonburi Bluewave is an important tie and we don’t want to lose our rhythm in the tournament,” he added.
Goals
| **Tainan City** | **Shenzhen Nanling** |
| Chang Han 30' | Danilo Moura 3', 33' |
| Vahid Shamsaee 20', 27' | |
| Lu Yue 11' | |
| Zhuang Jianfa 39' |
Photo: MG Seeto