The Team of the Quinas win second beach soccer world title after complete final performance
Portugal are the world champions of beach soccer for the second time following their 6-4 victory over Italy in the final of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Paraguay 2019.
Emmanuele Zurlo opened the scoring with his tenth of the tournament. He’s scored in every knockout stage match.
Leo Martins equalised with a well-hit free-kick that found the bottom corner to bring the teams level at the first interval. Portugal took a two-goal lead heading into the second and final interval thanks to goals from Jordan and Andre Lourenco’s follow-up tap-in from Jordan’s long-distance free-kick.
Jordan and Leo Martins both scored early in the third to both grab braces on the evening, while goalkeeper Andrade did his part, too, most notably saving a penalty from the tournament’s top scorer Gabriele Gori. As they’ve shown all tournament, Italy fought back into the game and found two goals from Andrea Ramacciotti and Josep Junior Gentilin to come to within two goals of the Portuguese.
However, Jordan converted a late free-kick to complete his hat-trick and bring Portugal a deserved victory, leading them to their second Beach Soccer World Cup title following triumph on home soil in 2015.
Russia claim third
Russia came from behind to defeat Japan 5-4 to finish in third place at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Paraguay 2019.
Japan’ captain Ozu, fresh off semi-final heartbreak where he missed his penalty kick, showed tremendous strength in the build-up to their first goal, beating Dmitry Shishin to a loose ball before setting Takuya Akaguma up to score. Russia responded with a pair of goals from Fedor Zemskov and Andrei Novikov before Akaguma headed in his second and Ozu scored from a close-range set piece to put Japan in front by the first interval.
Takaaki Oba and Zemskov scored goals at the end of the second period—Zemsvok’s acrobatic overhead kick was the game’s best.
Alexey Makarov pulled off a nice piece of skill, flicking the ball over Oba before hitting the top corner to equalise for Russia early in the final period.
Zemskov completed his hat-trick, finishing from close range after Shingo Terukina spilled a shot, to lead Russia to a podium finish at Paraguay 2019, a repeat of their performance at their last World Cup at Portugal 2015.
Final standings:
Champions: PORTUGAL
Runner-up: Italy
3rd place: Russia
4th place: Japan
Individual awards:
Fair Play: Senegal
adidas Golden Ball: Ozu (JPN)
adidas Silver Ball: Jordan (POR)
adidas Bronze Ball: Leo Martins (POR)
adidas Golden Glove: Andrade (POR)
adidas Golden Scorer: Gori (ITA)
adidas Silver Scorer: Zurlo (ITA)
adidas Bronze Scorer: Zemskov (RUS)
