The Iranian women’s national futsal team finished in third place overall at the conclusion of the 2025 AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup in China and secured a place at the forthcoming FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup.
On Saturday, the Iranian squad started the opening half of the third-place play-off against the home side stronger, and took the initiative as Fereshteh Khosravi, Maral Torkaman, and Fereshteh Karimi went close, before China’s Liu Danping saved efforts from Elham Anafjeh and Karimi.
There was a scare moment later, when Fatemeh Rahmati nearly put the ball in her net. However, Farzaneh Tavasoli outstretched her left leg and prevented the mishap.
The Iran goalkeeper then fielded Yu Ting’s rasping strike, as her side broke the deadlock shortly after the 11th minute.
After the break, the home side’s Su Jiahong received the ball on the right, pulled off a stunning piece of skill, and calmly picked out Cao Jiayi to tap in the equalizer.
Despite being under the cosh, it was Iran who scored next.
Nasimeh Gholami rolled the set-piece to Nastaran Moghimi, who had ghosted into the area, to sidefoot a shot that came off the left post and back into goal off Liu in 30 minutes.
Although the Chinese side brought out the power play and threw everything in a bid to take the game to extra time, it was of no avail.
Iran’s Torkaman finished them off in the dying seconds with a long-range strike into an unguarded net.
The top three teams – Japan, Thailand, and Iran – qualified for the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in the Philippines from November 21 to December 7.
