Hohhot: Iran overcame China PR in the third-place playoff of the AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup™ China 2025 on Saturday to seal their place at the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup Philippines 2025.

The two-time champions ended their campaign on a high in front of a raucous partisan crowd at the Hohhot Sports Centre, as the 3-1 victory ensured that they will join Thailand and Japan at the inaugural World Cup come November.

Given the high stakes, it was perhaps no surprise that both teams started tentatively as they probed for openings without overcommitting.

But Iran then took the initiative as Fereshteh Khosravi, Maral Torkaman and Fereshteh Karimi went close, before Liu Danping saved efforts from Elham Anafjeh and Karimi.

There was a scare when Fatemeh Rahmati nearly put the ball in her own net, with only the outstretched left leg of Farzaneh Tavasoli preventing disaster. The Iran goalkeeper then fielded Yu Ting’s rasping strike as her side broke the deadlock shortly after on 11 minutes.

Liu did superbly to repel attempts from Rahmati and then Nasimeh Gholami on the rebound, but was helpless to prevent the latter from setting up Torkaman to score her fifth goal in six games from unmissable range.

Tavasoli, the veteran, then demonstrated that she can still cut it at this level with a brilliant stop off Zhang Rui’s volley. Seconds later, the 38-year-old made a sprawling save from Ke Yaoxiang’s grounder, before getting up immediately to push the rebound away from the lurking Zhang.

Silenced at the break, the home fans were on their feet within a minute of the restart. 

Receiving the ball on the right, Su Jiahong pulled off a stunning piece of skill by leaving the onrushing Tavasoli for dead with a perfect Marseille turn before calmly picking out Cao Jiayi to tap in the equaliser.

The upper hand was with China PR now and Nastaran Moghimi made a vital intervention to prevent Ke from getting to a loose ball, while Tavasoli pulled off another top reflex save from the ensuing corner to deny Zhang.

Despite being under the cosh, it was Iran who scored next as they caught the reds shirts out at a corner. Gholami rolled the set-piece to Moghimi, who had ghosted into the area, to sidefoot a shot that came off the left post and back into goal off the unfortunate Liu on 30 minutes.

Lady Luck deserted China PR at the other end three minutes later as Zou Yinglan’s attempt beat Tavasoli but not the right post.

The home side brought out the power play and threw everything in a bid to take the game to extra time, but to no avail and it was Torkaman who finished them off in the dying seconds with a long-range strike into an unguarded net.

Hohhot: Iran stayed on course to win a third AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup™ title by overcoming Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

They were made to sweat for the 3-1 victory at the Hohhot Sports Centre by a determined opposition, who were gunning to reach the last four for the first time.

After the match finished 1-1 at the end of regulation time, Fereshteh Khosravi and Farzaneh Tavasoli netted deep in extra time to make it 13 wins in 14 matches overall.

The breakthrough was made by the Central Asians after just two minutes when Mahtab Banaei was fouled by goalkeeper Chu Fang-Yi in the area, allowing Maral Torkaman to step up and smash in the penalty for her second goal of the tournament.

Iran pushed for a second and Chu had to save efforts from Khosravi, Elham Anafjeh and Sara Shirbeigi, with Nasimeh Gholami and Banaei also spurning chances from close range.

They were given a scare when Su Hui-Chi rounded custodian Tavasoli but put the ball wide while off-balance, while Chen Min-Huang twice blazed wide from decent positions.

But Chinese Taipei did find the equaliser in the 18th minute through a well-worked kick-in routine, which saw Chen set up Liu Wen Ling to lash in her tournament-leading fifth goal from range.

Q-final: Chinese Taipei v IR Iran

That elicited a strong response from Iran, who peppered the opposing goal with shots from the restart – only to be as wasteful as they were before.

Their attempts were either tame strikes at Chu or off-target, with only Fereshteh Karimi coming close when she side-footed wide from Sara Shirbeigi’s pass in the 25th minute.

Having been under the cosh for most of the half, Chinese Taipei then came agonisingly close to taking the lead with five minutes left.

Pouncing on a loose ball, Liu Chih-Ling strode down the right and cracked a howitzer off the bar with Tavasoli a mere spectator.

Straight down the other end, Banaei fired wildly from a promising position and the Chinese Taipei rearguard held out to send the tie into extra time.

Torkaman thought she had broken the resistance in the 42nd minute only for Chu to produce a stupendous one-hand fingertip save, with Tavasoli then denying Chen with an outstretched leg a minute later at the opposite end.

Torkaman was foiled again by Chu in the second half of extra time but then with less than two minutes left, Iran struck the fatal blow.

A swift move saw Banaei accelerate away down the left before squaring for Khosravi, who made no mistake at the far post.

There was no way back with seconds left as Tavasoli sent a goal-kick into an empty net with Chinese Taipei throwing everyone forward, sealing a semi-final showdown with Japan on Thursday.

26th September 2024

September 26 – The Futsal World Cup has exploded into controversy, with coaches making accusations of match-fixing following a heavy defeat for France against Iran.

Rivals have complained about the manner of the French performance in a 4-1 loss, a result that opened up a potentially easier passage through the tournament for Les Bleus in Uzbekistan.

After a lifeless first half, Iran easily prevailed after France conceded a soft opening goal in the second, triggering angry reactions from other teams, some of whom filed complaints to FIFA.

“FIFA is aware of complaints filed by participating teams at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024 regarding the Group F match between France and IR Iran,” a FIFA spokesperson was quoted as saying. “No further comment will be made while this process is ongoing.”

While both teams had already qualified for the last 16, the result means France will take on Thailand before a potential quarter-final against Paraguay, while Iran face Morocco ahead of a possible last-eight clash against world number one Brazil.

“Iran and France, coaches and players alike, have disgraced my sport. You are a disgrace to the world,” Thailand coach Miguel Rodrigo wrote on X.

Retired Brazil great Falcao was quoted by French media as saying: “It shows a lack of respect for the World Cup. The match was clearly fixed from the first minute.”

A post on X by Libyan head coach Ricardo Iñiguez, whose team were eliminated from the competition at the group stage, also said the match had been a “disgrace” for the sport. “Libya is going to file an official complaint.”

But France coach Raphael Reynaud said the way the match played out was about avoiding bookings and injuries.

“It was Iran’s responsibility to be in charge of the game,” he said. “The draw is more open for us but our main goal was not to get booked and to avoid injuries.”