Brazil 2-1 Argentina
Brazil goals: Ferrao (6), Rafa (13)
Argentina goal: Matias Rosa (39)
Player of the Match: Willian (Brazil)
Ferrao had barely kicked a ball in 18 months. Marquinhos Xavier was blasted for boldly including the pivot in his squad for Uzbekistan 2024. Tonight, in the biggest game of his glorious career, Ferrao, as many predicted, got injured. He did so, however, scoring the biggest goal of his life: one that put Brazil en route to the trophy.
The Brazil coach made another courageous decision going into the tournament. He decided that Willian would be his go-to goalkeeper ahead of Guitta, one of the best ever in the position. The bearded No3 duly performed miracles throughout, headlining the final and seizing the adidas Golden Glove. Marlon, Marcel and Dyego were also outstanding for the Seleção.
Twelve years is a long time to wait for a futsal-crazy country, but Brazil are back on top of the world.
Stat
Brazil have now had the top goalscorer at five of the 10 FIFA Futsal World Cups after Marcel emulated Manoel Tobias (1996 & 2000), Falcao (2004) and Ferrao (2021).
Ukraine 7-1 France
Ukraine goals: Ihor Cherniavskyi (11), Mykhailo Zvarych (22), Yevhenii Zhuk (27 & 28), Danyil Abakshyn (30, 30 & 33)
France goals: Ayoub Saadaoui (23)
Player of the Match: Rostyslav Semenchenko (Ukraine)
Rostyslav Semenchenko blew out 21 candles soon after arriving in Uzbekistan and inspired the cherry on top of a historic cake for Ukraine just before leaving.
The winger’s eye-catching invention helped Oleksandr Kosenko’s side blow France away and bag bronze medals. Following a lamentable curtain-raiser, in which they lost 7-1 to Argentina, Ukraine – with Danyil Abakshyn clinical – scored 32 goals in six games en route to their best-ever finish at the tournament.
Quotes
“We’re very happy. We’re not in the top 10 in the world, but we came here and finished third. We had Ukraine’s best-ever World Cup and we feel proud. It’s also very nice for us to give happiness to the Ukrainian people.”
Rostyslav Semenchenko, Ukraine winger
“This was a historic adventure for French futsal. It was our first World Cup and we reached the semi-finals. We wanted more. We believed we could win it. We were so close to winning in the semi-finals. Today didn’t go our way, but we have to be proud. We’ve achieved something big to build on.”
Kevin Ramirez, France fixo
Stat
Ukraine’s win doubled the biggest ever margin of victory in a third-place play-off. It had been shared by Spain’s 9-6 win over IR Iran in 1992, Brazil’s 7-4 reverse of Argentina in 2004, and Italy’s 3-0 victory over Colombia in 2012.
