Defending champion Iran suffered an 8-4 defeat against Japan in the AFC U-20 Futsal Championship 2019 semifinals on Thursday.
“Futsal has always been like that, and we were not lucky against Japan. I thought we could win, even in the final 30 seconds. I’m satisfied with my players, they did their best,” Shandizi said.
“We had opportunities to score, but sometimes we’re unlucky. We hit the post twice when they were doing power play. It’s going be difficult to motivate my team now, and I’m afraid and worried my players will not emotionally recover from this. It’s going to be an even harder match against Indonesia, compared to Japan’s match,” he added.
Japan head coach Ryuji Suzuki also is satisfied with his team’s performance against Iran.
“Firstly, I really appreciate this chance to play against a strong team like Iran. I expected them to play more energetically with the support of the fans in the stadium, but we never gave up, and stuck together as a family to win. I still have my focus on the final, and how we are going to prepare for it. It will definitely be a hard game against Afghanistan,” Suzuki said.