At the Intercontinental Beach Football Cup, the Russian national team showed a game no worse than at the summer home world championship and continued to delight their fans. Moreover, the fiercest competition to the wards of Mikhail Likhachev was managed by the Japanese. In the opening meeting of the tournament, they made an impressive comeback and moved the game into overtime. However, there the domestic team gave the opponent a shot thanks to the goal of Andrey Kotenev. The best in the Russian squad was the poker player Boris Nikonorov.
Fyodor Zemskov was already enchanting in the confrontation with Paraguay.
Most of the fight, the reigning world champions were confident in the score, but in the final period they allowed the Latin Americans to reduce the gap to a minimum and provided themselves with a nervous ending - 8: 7.
Finally, in the final round of the group stage, Russia calmly beat Iran - 4: 3, conceding two goals at the end of the meeting.
However, it was not worth paying attention to the result of this meeting, because both teams by that time had already secured their way out of the group and were acting rather relaxed.
And the Iranians' failure was only on hand, because in the first stage of the playoffs they got not Portugal, but Senegal.
In the semifinals, Likhachev's wards left no chances for the “European Brazilians” - 7: 3. Goalkeeper Stanislav Kosharny played an excellent game, who not only regularly made great saves, but also scored a double. First, he distinguished himself with a strong long-range strike, and then converted a free kick. Zemskov scored a hat-trick for the second time in the tournament. The only fly in the ointment was the removal of the main defender Andrey Novikov, who was left without a final due to a red card.
The Iranians in their semifinals turned out to be stronger than the main sensation of the 2021 World Cup - the Senegal team (7: 5).
Now they and Russia, in a decisive confrontation, had to determine who would become the first four-time winner of the Intercontinental Cup in history.
The domestic team took the trophy in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
And the Iranians excelled in 2013 and in the last two tournaments, and three years ago they beat Russia in the final - 4: 2.
This time the Russian national team started the decisive match very powerfully.
The team literally suppressed the opponent with high pressure and did not allow him to start his attacks.
This tactic made it possible to score a quick goal.
Nikonorov, in an initially seemingly losing situation on the flank, took the ball away from the defender and shot hard into the near corner.
Goalkeeper Hamid Behzadpur in this situation showed himself not in the best way and could not help out his partners.
Having opened an account, the domestic team gave the initiative to the Iranians and calmly went to their gates.
Abbas Hashempur's wards tried to look for free zones in the defense, and Behzadpur went out almost to the center, regularly dispersing attacks from the depths.
But Kosharny was rarely disturbed.
Before the break, he made only a few saves.
The counter-attacks of the reigning world champions looked much more dangerous.
In them, the Russians could well have scored more.
For example, Kirill Romanov made his opponent make a mistake and went one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but he saved his team.
And Nikonorov's shot through himself from the left flank lacked accuracy a little.
The Russians also started the second period great, increasing their advantage almost immediately.
This time, the standard position helped to excel.
After a perfect kick-in from the side by Artur Ferorotny, Nikonorov, who was not covered by anyone, hit his head exactly.
The striker did not stop there and after only three and a half minutes he scored a hat-trick.
He took advantage of the opponent's unsuccessful handling and left the goalkeeper out of work with a stunning blow with a bisiclelet.
Thus, Boris with eight goals broke into second place in the tournament's scorers' race.
Unfortunately, this came at the cost of damage.
Even after the first goal, the footballer held on to his side, and, having scored the third, was unable to continue the game.
Doctors helped the athlete right on the sand, and then took him away from the site under the arms.
The Iranians still did not succeed. In the attack, they each time lacked the last accurate pass and it rarely came to shots on the goal of Kosharny. And even if they created chances, they did not realize them. For example, Mahdi Shirmohammadi miraculously shot higher from a free kick at a distance of ten meters. And only at the end of the game segment, the Iranians did close the gap. The current winner of the Intercontinental Cup fled into a counterattack, which Mokhtari completed with an accurate shot on an empty goal.
As a result, in the final period, domestic fans had to get nervous.
The Iranians with their last strength went forward and pushed the Russians to the gate.
However, the opponent was not lucky - in the last 12 minutes they hit the post twice.
First, Moslem Mesigar almost scored a handsome goal, and then Amir Akbari hit the same stand with a direct blow from a standard.
Likhachev's wards actively defended and courageously lay down under the ball.
Even Nikonorov worked in the destruction, returning to the site despite the damage.
However, after another violent collision, the striker finally left the game.
And only 25 seconds before the final siren, the Iranians reduced the gap to a minimum.
Mokhtari designed a double with a beautiful shot through himself into the near corner, which Kosharny could not cope with.
However, the opponents had no chance to escape.
The Russians played the ball well from the center and kept it near the corner flag almost to the end.
So the national team for a record, for the fourth time won the Intercontinental Cup, and also finished 2021 on a positive note.
Following the home championship of the planet, the national team won another prestigious competition and confirmed the title of the strongest in the world.