All or nothing at Futsal World Cup

The remaining teams at the Futsal World Cup in Brazil will be fighting for a spot in the semi finals as they play their final group games on Tuesday.

The eight teams first survived a first round with twenty participants to get to this stage, but many of them wouldn’t consider anything less than the semi finals a success.

Brazil have won their first two games in the first group over Iran and Italy, and the tournament hosts are practically through to the semi’s, especially considering that they face already eliminated Ukraine in their final game.

Iran and Italy face off in the other Group E match (the groups in this round are called E and F, as the first round already contained a group A to D). Both sides won one of their first two games but Italy have a better goal record, which means that the Azzurri could aim for a draw.

Title defenders Spain are already through in Group F after winning their two first games, and Russia have the best chances of making it to the next round as runner-up. The Russians have three points and face last-placed Argentina in their last game. Paraguay, third placed, would need a good result against Spain to have a chance of making it through to the semi finals.

The tournament is held in the Brazilian towns of Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, and finishes on October 19th.