FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup:
Iran holds off Mauritania fightback to win opener
Iran had to survive a spirited comeback from Mauritania to edge out the African newcomers 5-4 in their Group B opener at the 2025 Beach Soccer World Cup in Victoria, Seychelles.
Bicycle kicks from Reza Amirizadeh and Movahed Mohammadpour put Iran, which finished third in the previous World Cup edition in Dubai last year, in the driver’s seat at the Paradise Arena.
Cheikh Belkheir pulled one back for the Northwest African side, but Mahdi Shirmohammadi’s sublime volley restored the two-goal cushion for Ali Naderi’s men, before Mohammadali Mokhtari made it 4-1 with nine seconds remaining in the first period.
When Mokhtari netted his second goal of the day less than four minutes after the restart, the reigning Asian champion thought it was headed for a comfortable opening-day victory but the Mauritanians had other ideas.
Belkheir rounded off his man-of-the-match performance with two more goals either side of an Ahmedou Bilal’s strike, forcing Iran to hold on late in the third period to avoid a first major upset of the tournament.
Iranian scorer Mohammadpour blamed the unfamiliar circumstances for his side’s shaky start in the event, saying: “The first match of each tournament is so hard. We have to adapt to things because we are not familiar with the sand, so we tried to improve our teamwork. Mauritania started to pressure our defense and pressed us man to man, which took up a lot of energy and made it difficult for us.”
Mokhtari, meanwhile, said he and his teammates would have “to learn from our mistakes [against Mauritania] to improve for our future outings in the tournament.”
Next for Iran is a game against Paraguay today, before Naderi’s man square off against Portugal on the final day of the group fixtures on Monday.
A 20-goal thriller later on Thursday saw Miguel Pintado and Be Martins score a hat-trick apiece to help two-time champion Portugal beat Paraguay 11-9 and move atop the group table.