Kyrgyzstan Beats Turkmenistan to Reach Quarter-finals of AFC Futsal Championship

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Kyrgyzstan made it into the quarterfinals of AFC Futsal Championship 2012 after beating Turkmenistan 2-1 in the last match of Group A where hosts UAE also failed to progress.

In one of the nervy matches of the tournament against neighbouring Turkmenistan, the Kyrgyz totally controlled the match early on but with Turkmenistan pegging one back with just less than four minutes remaining in the clock, the Kyrgyzstan bench had their heart on the sleeves in last three minutes.
 
Kyrgyzstan, who started the campaign with sombre note losing out to Thailand made it two in row and now will take on Japan in the quarterfinal on Tuesday.

“Though we won this match, we suffered same old problem – not taking our chances before and do it in difficult ways,” Kyrgyzstan coach Mukanov Amirzhan told www.the-afc.com.
 
Kyrgyzstan had so many chances earlier to put the match into the bed specially taking a comfortable 2-0 lead after Nurjan Djetybaev and Vadim Kondratkov scored respectively in the 15th and 17th minute.

“We nearly squared it off but fortunately a couple of their late attempts hit the posts rather than going in. Against Japan in the quarterfinals, there is no room for mistake, otherwise Japan will definitely make us pay for those mistakes,” the Kazak rued. 
 
Turkmenistan Rejepov received red card in the 28th minute but Kyrgyzstan failed to make it count and the last three minutes of the match was very nervy after Nazim Rahimov scored in the 37th minute.

“This is a good team performance from us but Kyrgyzstan are too good for us at this moment,” Turkmenistan coach Kanayev Guvanch told www.the-afc.com.
 
“In few years time we will be a different team as we have hired a Japanese expert to help our futsal and at the same time there are lots of grassroots activities going on in Turkmenistan so things will be definitely get better in future,” Guvanch concluded.