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MY BEACH SOCCER 
Italy, Senegal and Switzerland booked their places in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Day three of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2017 on Saturday saw victories for Italy, Switzerland, Nigeria and Senegal.
Senegal thump hosts, reach quarter-finals
Senegal underlined they are a team to watch out for at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2017 after an emphatic 10-1 victory over hosts Bahamas in their second Group A match.
Building on their nine-goal win over Ecuador, the African champions raced out to a five-goal lead in the first period and never looked back, as the Bahamas struggled to contain Senegal’s attack.
Ibrahima Balde struck a hat-trick before Papa Ndoye and Hamad Diouf each scored a brace to book Senegal’s place in the quarter-finals alongside Switzerland.
Though Gavin Christie scored a penalty, the Bahamas’ dreams of advancing to the knockout stages ended with this defeat.
Italy win back and forth encounter
Italy beat Iran 5-4 in a wild, back-and-forth encounter to go top of Group B at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017.
The Italians took the lead through current tournament top scorer Gabriele Gori, who guided in a close-range effort with his chest. Asian champions Iran then responded with three unanswered goals.
The pick of the bunch was Moslem Mesigar’s spectacular overhead kick that gave the Iranians a 3-1 lead.
Gori then scored his eighth goal in two games to bring the Azzurri back within one goal and his strike seemed to give Massimo Agostini’s side the lift they needed to ultimately win the match and do something the country has never managed in their tournament history: win after being two goals down.
Switzerland survive Ecuador fightback
Switzerland survived a spirited Ecuador fightback to win their second Group A match in succession at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017.
Noel Ott led Switzerland’s goalscoring efforts with four of his own, while coach Angelo Schirinzi will be pleased that long-time star Dejan Stankovic got off the mark at Bahamas 2017 with a hat-trick of his own.
Stankovic has now scored 26 goals in FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup history. Just when Ecuador looked like they would suffer a second thrashing – the debutants were defeated by Senegal 9-0 in their first match – they showed character and eventually scored their first-ever goal in tournament history.
Jorge Bailon will forever be in the history books for his country, as he scored Ecuador’s first to make it 6-1. Ecuador then found four more goals and finished the match strongly.
However, Switzerland did enough to stay in front and ultimately finish with all three points.
Last-gasp hero Abu gives Nigeria win
Nigeria staged a remarkable comeback to defeat Mexico 5-4 in extra time of their Group B clash at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017.
It was the Mexicans that initially took control of the contest after goals from Abdiel Villa, Angel Rodriguez and Ramon Maldonado.
However, the West Africans responded with a pair of goals from Emeka Ogbonna and Azeez Abu before a late Victor Tale penalty resulted in the first regulation-time draw at Bahamas 2017.
Nigeria outlasted Mexico in the extra-time period, with Abu scoring the winner just seconds from the end to claim the two points on offer.
Saturday results
15:30 – Italy 5-4 Iran
17:00 – Switzerland 9-5 Ecuador
18:30 – Mexico 4-5 Nigeria (AET)
20:00 – Senegal 10-1 Bahamas
Sunday fixtures
15:30 – Tahiti v Japan
17:00 – Paraguay v Portugal
18:30 – Poland v Brazil
20:00 – Panama v UAE
