Portugal and Italy set up World Cup final

The Azzurri win epic back-and-forth thriller against Russia to qualify, asthe Portuguese need penalty kick shootout to bend mighty Japan

Portugal edged Japan 2-1 on penalties after the match finished 3-3 after extra time to advance to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Paraguay 2019 final, where they will face Italy.

All of Portugal’s goals came from brothers Be and Leo Martins, with the former scoring a decisive double in the third period.

Portugal took an early lead through Leo Martins, however, Japan fought their way back into the match and took a 2-1 lead thanks to Ozu Moreira and Shusei Yamauchi’s goals.

Takuya Akaguma scored with less than a minute on the clock to send the game to extra time, and that’s when the torrential rain that we saw in the first semi-final returned.

With the rain teeming down, Portugal won in the penalty shoot-out thanks to goals from Madjer and Coimbra to book a place in the final, where they will look to repeat their 2015 exploits when they won the World Cup on home soil.

Before that, and playing in a torrential Asuncion summer rain storm, Italy won a thrilling back-and-forth semi-final 8-7 to defeat Russia after extra time.

Gabriele Gori and Dario Ramacciotti both scored hat-tricks to lead Azzurri to their first Beach Soccer World Cup final since 2008.

Andrei Novikov opened the scoring with his first goal of the tournament, a free-kick from about midway. Italy captain Francesco Corosiniti equalised with a header from a corner kick. Dario Ramacciotti capitalised on a mistake by Alexey Makarov to put Azzurri in front after the first period.

Makarov made amends at the beginning of the second period, hitting a powerful shot into the top corner. Ramacciotti got Italy back in the lead before Fedor Zemskov scored a double before the second interval.

Gori, now on a tournament-leading 16 goals, scored three goals in a wild third period, which also saw Kirill Romanov score a brace, Makarov add another and Ramacciotti complete his hat-trick to send the game into extra time.

Emmanuele Zurlo once again scored the winning goal, this time from the penalty spot after Artur Paporotnyi saw red, to ensured Italy booked a place in Sunday’s final. Italy already know they will better their performance from two years ago when they finished in fourth place.

Picture: Getty Images