The duel between Russia and Spain, the battle of Senegal with Brazil and the test for Stankovic: the intrigues of the beach soccer World Cup playoffs

The group stage of the World Cup was remembered for a number of sensational results, as a result of which the playoff grid appeared in a rather unexpected form. Among the tournament favorites, only the Russian national team managed to confirm their status and take first place in their quartet. True, the wards of Mikhail Likhachev also did not do without hassle, and right up to the final round they risked being left without a ticket to the quarterfinals. This could have happened if they had not beaten their main competitor and the sixth number in the ranking of the World Beach Football Organization (BSWW) - Japan.

As for the rest of the top teams, they performed less confidently. Brazil and Spain each suffered one defeat in the preliminary stage, which ultimately cost them the first places in their groups. The South Americans lost to Switzerland in a penalty shootout, and the Europeans lost to Tahiti with a score of 8:12, which is why they lost the lead. True, the fans of the “red fury” are unlikely to be disappointed even with such a result, given that the team missed the last two world championships.

Portugal is the least fortunate. The leader of the rating of the World Beach Football Organization failed, having managed to beat only modest Oman in the first round. Subsequently, the "European Brazilians" were alternately beaten by a strong Senegal and a militant Uruguay, which left them behind in the playoffs. It should be noted that the two-time world champions have never completed their performance at the group stage before.

All this in aggregate led to the fact that the final composition of the quarterfinal pairs was noticeably different from those that were initially predicted. On the one hand, this did not reflect in the best way on the Russian national team, which went to Spain in the first round of the playoffs. And do not underestimate the charges of Christian Mendeza due to the fact that they conceded 12 goals in one meeting. The hosts of the final tournament on an ongoing basis experienced problems in face-to-face confrontations with opponents, having lost exactly half of the last ten matches.

The last time the teams met each other at the preliminary stage of the Euroleague in beach soccer, the final stage of which will take place after the end of the Russian world championship.

In regular time, the teams could not identify the winner, and Kirill Romanov brought a blow to the national team in an additional victory.

The meeting ended with a score of 6: 5, and Andrey Novikov scored a double.

At the home world championship, the Lokomotiv footballer is not yet very productive.

He has only one accurate shot, and the top scorers of the Russian national team with three goals are Alexey Makarov, Boris Nikanorov and Artur Ferorotny.

However, this is noticeably less than that of the leader of Spain - Chica, who managed to score twice as much.

But if in the quarterfinals Likhachev's team received a solid rival, then if it reaches the next round, it will have a meeting with a less status one. At first, it was assumed that the first place in group C would be taken by Brazil, but that remained only the second, as a result of which it ended up in the lower part of the grid. As a result, Switzerland took its place in the second semi-final - a strong national team led by the top scorer of the championship Dejan Stankovic. The full namesake of the ex-Inter midfielder has already hammered eight goals and gave two assists, strengthening his position on the first line in the “goal + pass” system.

At the same time, the reigning world champions could become Switzerland's opponent until the last moment, but they were prevented by a defeat in the third round from Uruguay. As a result, Latin Americans who qualified for the World Cup only twice in the last ten years got a chance to become the opening of the tournament. And there are prerequisites for this: in Moscow, Herman Parrillo's wards were remembered for their unbending character and ability to squeeze their counterparts. First, they crushed Oman, scoring two goals in 15 seconds in the end, and then defeated Portugal, losing three times in the long run.

The experience of performing in the decisive stages of major tournaments and the presence of Stankovic in the squad (albeit overweight) allows the Swiss to be considered favorites, but they should not count on an easy walk.

Sharp counterattacks have already become a hallmark of the Uruguayans and may well help them get to the semifinals for the first time since 2009.

As for the Russian national team, the situation is in many ways similar to the one that developed at the competitions two years ago.

Then the Likhachev team came together with one of the favorites already in the quarterfinals - with Brazil, managed to cope with it, but in the next match it partly lost sensationally to Italy, which lacked stars from the sky.

As for the lower part of the grid, there were also very interesting confrontations. First of all, this concerns the match between Brazil and Senegal. A few years ago, South Americans would certainly have been considered the undisputed favorites, but now the balance of power has changed a bit. The African team had a very powerful start in Moscow and won the first two matches with a goal difference of 11: 4. Yes, then there was a defeat from Oman, but that meeting did not decide much. The Africans had guaranteed themselves a place in the playoffs in advance, and the loss of the first line would not be a tragedy for them. In the worst case, they would have ended up in Switzerland.

In the group stage, the Africans became a real problem for opponents who preferred to play with them from a position of strength, and they regularly punished them on counterattacks.

Perhaps they lack technology a little, but they more than compensate for this with physical power and speed.

And there is a high probability that they will become a serious test even for 14-time world champions.

By the way, this is not the first time to stumble in the first round of the playoffs.

In 2015 and 2019, the Brazilians lost twice to the Russians - first in overtime (5: 6), then in regular time (3: 4).

However, after the first failure, they drew conclusions and won gold at the next tournament.

Will they be able to repeat it now is one of the key intrigues of the championship.

However, the most tense will be the confrontation between Tahiti and Japan. The Tahiti national team became the only participant in the playoffs not included in the top ten of the BSWW rankings. True, in this case, trusting the table of ranks is not entirely correct. So, over the past eight years, they twice reached the finals of the planetary championship, and once again took fourth place. Athletes from the Land of the Rising Sun, although they stopped one step away from the podium in 2019, but in the previous eight tournaments, the quarterfinals became their ultimate dream.

And while everything goes to the fact that it is Tahiti that will go on. They speak for a triumphant performance at the group stage, the presence of a bright goalscorer in the person of Heiruaria Salem (seven goals) and not the most confident game of the opponent. And the point is not only in the crushing defeat from Russia in the final round (1: 7), but also in the problems in the position of the first number. Tomoya Ginodza and Yusuke Kawai were hardly able to prove themselves in front of the coach, so the question of the position of the first number will remain open until the starting whistle.