Futsal Team Melli started strongly in the opening match of Group
Team Melli started the campaign strongly and with intent on Monday beating the Latin American side Venezuela 7-1 in Bukhara in Group F.

Vahid Shamsaei’s team will meet Guatemala and France on September 19 and 22, respectively.

Iran started strongly and easily managed to control the game scoring early but the goal was ruled out after a VAR review. It did not take long for Team Melli to register the first goal from Salr Aghapour from a perfect assist by Moslem Oladghobad in the 8th minute. Within a minute Sangsafidi was lucky not to get a red card for an unwarranted unprofessional foul on a Venezuelan player away from action although he escaped with a yellow.
Two minutes later Karimi scored a delightful second and followed it with his second goal and third for Iran on minute 13.
In the 15th minute, Iran keeper Momeni made a horrible blunder when a weak ball passed through his hands into the goal for Venezuela to register its first goal. However, Behrouz Azmi scored a splendid goal just a minute before the break to make it 4-1.

In the second half, Aghapour scored his second in the match with a superb ball distribution and an assist from Karimi to make it 5-1. Two more goals from Davoudi and Azimi finished off the Latin American team, which could not match Team Melli’s skills and tactics.
Interestingly enough, Shamsaei decided to play a power play in the last minute of the match. Normally, power play is used by a defeated team looking for an equalizer or reducing goal deficit, but Shamsaei was using this game as a practice for his players in case it is used at a later stage of the World Cup.
Another interesting point is that none of the two superstar forwards, Hossein Tayyebi and Ahmad-Abbasi, managed to score in this match.