Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Dubai: Kyrgyzstan brought themselves back into contention for a place in the quarter-finals after scoring three second-half goals to defeat 2012 AFC Futsal Championship hosts the UAE 3-1 on Saturday.
Victorious Kyrgyzstan coach Amirzhan Mukanov attributed the victory to a tactical switch at half-time that took advantage of the tiring hosts.
“We had some good chances in the first-half but we couldn’t take them and during the break I told my players to make more use of the flanks,” he said.
“I saw that the UAE were tiring and we adopted a 1-2-1 formation to create more space and allow more passes to free players.”
After a scrappy first-half Kyrgyzstan broke the deadlock two minutes after the interval after skipper Nurjan Djetybaev teed up Rustam Ermekov who unleashed a blistering low drive the flew past the out-stretched leg of UAE keeper Jabir Mohamed, who had made a couple of crucial saves in the opening period.
The UAE went 2-0 down in the 32nd minute when Marat Duvanev’s free-kick took a wicked deflection off Abdelaziz Abdulla sending the ball past Mohamed who had no time to adjust his position and make the save.
And things got worse for the UAE three minutes later and again it was a free-kick that was their undoing, with Djetybaev’s set-piece collected by Emil Kanetov on Jabir’s right-hand post and bundled into the net from close range.
With three minutes left on the clock Tariq Abdulla pulled one back for the UAE but it was too little too late for the hosts who now need to better Kyrgyzstan’s result against Turkmenistan when they face already-qualified Thailand in the final round of fixtures on Sunday.