Qantas Futsalroos defeat Lebanon

The Qantas Futsalroos ended their AFC Futsal Championships campaign with a hard-fought 6-4 win over Lebanon, to finish second on the Group C.

The Qantas Futsalroos ended their AFC Futsal Championships campaign with a hard-fought 6-4 win over Lebanon, to finish second on the Group C.

Kyrgyzstan finished top of the group after defeating Kuwait 2-0, although the result would have been irrelevant even if they lost, as they had the better head-to-head record against Australia.

As he did in the match against Kuwait a day earlier, Lachlan Wright put Australia ahead after five minutes, with Miles Downie adding a second four minutes later. Lebanon pulled one back, but Scott Manson (13-), Luke Haydon (16-) put the Qantas Futsalroos out to a 4-1 lead. Lebanon added a second goal just minutes before half time.

Christopher Zeballos (30) put Australia 5-2 ahead, but Lebanon was desperate to fight back and pulled two goals back to set up a frantic final couple of minutes. Manson sealed victory with a goal right on fulltime.

Australian coach Scott Gilligan told the AFC Official website, “We came to Tashkent with the semifinals in our mind but we didn-t achieve it. Overall, I am satisfied with the result. I think we won today because we had enough players to rotate.”