Italy met their match on the sand of Katara Beach. It was their Brazilian opponents who were successful here in Doha and advanced to the grand final of the World Beach Games 2019, as they beat the Azzurri 7-5. Del Duca’s men will now have to fight for the bronze medal against Iran as they take each other on in the third-fourth play-off, with the match kicking off tomorrow at 16:30 CEST. Brazil, like always, have a team full of top-quality players, many of whom are household names in the Italian Beach Soccer league. The first period ended with a 2-0 lead for those in green and gold, courtesy of goals from Filipe and Rodrigo. They then further extended their lead in the second period, despite goals from Gori and Chiavaro. Rodrigo was on fire as he netted another three goals and along with a strike from Catarino the Brazilians won the second period 4-2. But in the in the final third the Italians mounted a strong attempt at a comeback, which ultimately wasn’t quite enough to overturn their opponents lead. Goals from Ramacciotti and Gori looked to have put Italy back in the contest. However a strike from Lucao ultimately ensured that the victory belonged to Da Silva Costa’s men, and Gori’s second goal of the half was ultimately little more than a consolation goal. Brazil will take on Russia tomorrow in a clash between two of the heavyweights of Beach Soccer. For the moment the Azzurri will still be feeling the pain of having only lost one game out of four, and against one of the strongest teams in the world at that, and yet still being out of the running for the gold medal.

Simone Marinai gave his thoughts after the match: “It was a hard-fought match against a team that for the past few years has been one of the strongest in the world. We were in the game right until the end, but we just weren’t able to win. Now we have to focus on the third-fourth play-off game tomorrow. After that we will look ahead to Dubai and the World Cup, where we hope that we will be able to perform at this level again.”

“We gave our all from start to finish and we were also a little bit unlucky”, added goalkeeper Simone Del Mestre. “We conceded at least two goals from unlucky deflections. But that aside it’s clear that you need to play the perfect game against Brazil and we were very close to doing so. The most important thing was to make a good impression and to show what we are made of, particularly ahead of the World Cup. Tomorrow we will try to take home a medal at all costs.”

BRAZIL 7-5 ITALY (2-0; 4-2; 1-3)
Goals: 4’ft Filipe (B), 7’ft Rodrigo (B); 1’st Gori (I); 2’st Rodrigo (B), 2’st Chiavaro (I); 6’st Rodrigo (B), 6’st Rodrigo (B), 7’st Catarino (B); 1’tt Ramacciotti (I), 2’tt Gori (I), 3’tt Lucao (B), 7’tt Gori (I)

Brazil: Mao, Rafinha, Catarino, Rodrigo, Datinha; Rafa Padilha, Antonio, Filipe, Lucao, Boquinha, Rodrigo Souto; Mauricinho; Coach. Da Silva Costa
Italy: Del Mestre, Marinai, Ramacciotti, Chiavaro, Gori; Carpita, Corosiniti, Zurlo, Palmacci, Percia Montani, Frainetti; Coach. Del Duca

Match Officials: Mammadov (AZE), Robles (MEX), Liang (CHI), Nassur (MAD)

Groups

Group A: Brazil, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Marocco
Group B: Italy, Spain, Mexico, Solomon Islands
Group C: Iran, Paraguay, Senegal, Ukraine
Group D: Russia, Japan, Uruguay, El Salvador

Group Stage results

Solomon Islands 5-8 Italy
Italy 5-3 Mexico
Spain 4-5 Italy

Semi-finals (15 October)
16:30 CEST: Russia 6-2 Iran
19:30 CEST: Brazil 7-5 Italy

Finals (16 October)
16:30 CEST: Italy vs. Iran
19:30 CEST: Brazil vs. Russia