The Turkmenistan team won its first victory at the 2025 Asian Futsal Cup qualifying tournament among women's teams, which is taking place in Tashkent, beating their opponents from Kuwait 4:3.
The Turkmen futsal players are making their second attempt to reach the final tournament of the Asian Cup. The first one in 2018 ended with two defeats from the national teams of Iran and Uzbekistan.
The teams of Turkmenistan and Kuwait had an unsuccessful start in Group C, the games of which are being held in the capital of Uzbekistan with the participation of five teams. In the first two matches, Kamil Mingazov's team lost to the representatives of Australia - 1:6 and the Philippines - 0:2. And the futsal players from Kuwait suffered three defeats, losing first to the team of the Philippines - 1:4, and then with the same score 0:5 to the teams of Australia and Uzbekistan.
Before this match, the women's teams of Turkmenistan and Kuwait met each other twice in 2019 in friendly matches. And then, in both matches, our compatriots celebrated victory.
The current match, which became the first official match in the history of meetings with the Kuwait national team, was also held with the advantage of the Turkmen futsal players. Already at the beginning of the game, two real chances to open the score were missed by the captain of our team Maria Charyeva and Maya Musatskaya, who is improving her skills as part of "Vilnius Zalgiris" in the top division of the Lithuanian football championship.
And yet, in the 11th minute, the ball flew into the goal of the Kuwaiti team. Lale Haipova made a quick run along the right flank, after which she gave a perfect pass to Pervana Kurbanova, who did not miss from the penalty area. At the end of the first half, Nur Alherz restored the balance from the penalty spot - 1:1.
In the first minute after the break, Maria Charyeva, with a pass from Kamila Mingazova, put our team ahead again – 2:1. In the 26th minute,
Abir Alrefaye scored from close range to make it 2-2 again.
However, this balance did not last long. In the 28th minute, Suray Mametsahedova made the score 3:2 in favor of the Turkmenistan team after a brilliant pass from Lale Haipova. And a minute later, Pervana Kurbanova scored a double, increasing our team's advantage to two goals - 4:2. In the last minute of the game, thanks to the efforts of Shruk Mohammad, the Kuwait team reduced the gap to a minimum - 3:4, but could not escape defeat, finishing the tournament in last place.
After this victory, the Turkmenistan team earned its first 3 points and now in the last round will meet the third-placed Uzbekistan team with 4 points, which previously tied with the Philippines – 3:3, won against Kuwait – 5:0 and lost to Australia – 1:3. In another match of the final game day, the teams of Australia and the Philippines will play each other, which have 9 and 7 points respectively.
The Asian Futsal Championship among women's teams has been held since 2015. In the first two previous times, which took place in Malaysia and in 2018 in Thailand, the Iranian futsal players won, beating the Japanese team in both finals (in 2015 - 1:0, in 2018 - 5:2). The third tournament was planned to be held in Kuwait in 2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, the Asian Futsal Championship officially changed its name to the Asian Cup.
The current qualifying tournament involves 18 teams divided into four groups. The top two teams from each group, as well as the team with the best result among those who take third place, will advance to the final stage of the 2025 Asian Cup. China, as the host country, as well as Iran and Japan, as finalists of the previous tournament in 2018, are exempt from participating in the qualifying round.
The Asian Cup final tournament will be held from May 7 to 18 in China. Based on its results, the three best teams will qualify for the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup, which will be held in the Philippines in the second half of 2025.
