Dubai: The Emperor and The Storm secured emphatic wins to book a meeting in the futsal semi-finals at the Fifth Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Ramadan Sports Tournament being held at the NAS Sports Complex.
The Storm rode on a hat-trick from Ruben Daniel Reis Lemos to quell Al Jawareh 7-1, while The Emperor were always in charge as they swamped Sport For All 5-0 late on Monday.
“We had a plan and we stuck to it and that is why Sport For All failed to get past our defence even once,” The Emperor’s Russian striker Eder Fermino Lima told Gulf News.
“We knew the strengths of Sport For All and one of these was cutting through defences on the counter. We had to be patient to get our first goal, and once we had that, we pretty much had the match in our control,” he added.
Lima, who has scored on three occasions for his team so far, made it 3-0 two minutes into the second period. But by then, Malden Kocic from Serbia and Taher Hassan Obaid Taresh had given The Emperor a 2-0 cushion going into half-time.
Goalkeeper Mohammad Salem Al Salmi joined the party when his long-range effort crashed into the top corner of the net to make it 4-0, while Hamdan Al Katheeri completed the scoring on the night when he squeezed in from a narrow angle.
Earlier in the first match, The Storm rode on a hat-trick from Portuguese striker Lemos and another two from Spaniard Alejandro Lemine Luque, while Andre Gaspar Da Silva Gomes and Hamad Al Ghoul added one each to complete the rout. Brazilian Felipe Dos Paradynski was the only goalscorer for the losing side.
“We knew we were up against a tricky opponent. We had to safeguard our goal to start with and see how we could catch them on the counter. That was the plan all along and it worked very well for us tonight,” The Storm’s striker Lemos said.
Results:
Futsal: (Quarter-finals)
The Storm 7 Al Jawareh 1
The Emperor 5 Sport For All 0
