Macau suffers heavy 10-2 loss to Tajikistan in AFC Qualifiers opener

The Macau Futsal team has started its campaign in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qualifiers on the wrong foot. The local team, aiming for a place in the AFC Futsal Asian Cup, scheduled to take place in Indonesia next year, lost the first match to host Tajikistan by a decisive margin (10-2).

As one of the favorites from Group C, Tajikistan started the match on the attack. Dilshod Salomov scored the first goal in the third minute. One minute later, Samandar Rizomov extended the advantage.

The Central Asian side continued to assert its superiority, with Nasratsho Ismoilov making the score 3-0 and Idris Yorov scoring the fourth just eight minutes into the game.

The local side took a long time to respond to Tajikistan’s offensive waves, and the match was briefly more balanced, although this was due more to Tajikistan conserving energy than to real pressure from Macau.

At the start of the second half, the hosts returned to full power, scoring three more goals in the first four to five minutes of the period.

One last push from Tajikistan added two more goals at minutes 26 and 29 before Macau managed to score through Fong Chi Wa seconds later.

Despite the significant deficit, the goal motivated the local side, which made a few attempts to attack against Tajikistan. Taking advantage, Tajikistan scored the 10th goal by Idiev in the 37th minute.

Just before the match ended, Macau had another chance to score via a “second penalty” (a direct shot from the 10-meter mark). Called to take the shot, Fong kicked hard, with a strange rebound off the Tajikistan goalkeeper’s leg sending the ball into the goal. The keeper still dived, but the referee immediately awarded the goal.

In the end, the 10-2 result reflected Tajikistan’s clear supremacy, with the visitors always in control. Macau’s 5-a-side team looked extremely nervous, with little coordination between players.

In the other Group C match, Japan defeated Cambodia 5-0.

Macau will continue its AFC Qualifiers campaign today, facing Japan at 8 p.m. (Macau time).