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Iran stun Brazil in Futsal World Cup

Iran caused a major upset at the 8th edition of the FIFA Futsal World Cup this week when they beat defending champions Brazil in the round of 16. Brazilian Futsal legend Falcao was making his final appearance at the tournament after announcing his retirement. He scored the first two goals to give the 5-time world champions a great start. But soon after Iran found their rhythm and pulled one back through the fancy footwork of Hossein Tayyebi. Sloppy Iranian defence gifted Dieguinho an easy goal to restore Brazil’s two goal advantage, but Iran didn’t give up and Afshim Kazemi made it 3-2. Ali Hassan Zaden carried on the momentum and with 36 minutes on the clock scored his fourth goal this edition to send the game into extra time at 3-3. Falcao completed his hat-trick on the night to put Brazil 4-3 in front and within sight of victory but Iran had other ideas and captain Mohammad Keshavarz burried his effort to level the score at 4-4. A penalty shootout was needed to decide the winner and after Ari missed his spotkick Ahmad Esmaeilpour sealed Iran’s victory and a quarter-final showdown with Paraguay.