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Dubai: UAE's beach soccer team has been knocked out of the World Cup after losing 5-0 to Russia in Marseille on Tuesday.
The defeat denied them a place in the quarterfinals of the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup.
The big win secured Russia a spot in the quarters after they finished second in Group C on six points, behind winners Argentina who bagged nine points from three straight wins and are now one of the favourites to take the title.
The South Americans beat bottom of the group Cameroon 3-0.
UAE finished third in the group with three points, which they managed with a big 10-4 win over Cameroon in their first match.
The side did not perform well against Russia yesterday with poor displays in all the game's three periods.
UAE opened with some promise when a powerful shot by Bakhit Sa'ad was blocked by the Russian goalkeeper Andrey Bukhlitskiy after two minutes from kick off but the Russians responded with a shot that hit the post.
Alexey Makarov opened the scoring for Russia in the sixth minute of the first period with a bullet from long distance. A minute later and Egor Shaykov hit the second to the left of UAE custodian Mohammad Al Mazam.
Contrasting goalkeepers
The Russian goalkeeper Bukhlitskiy was in outstanding form saving shots from Bakhit Sa'ad and Rami Abdullah.
In the last minute of the second period, Russia scored the third through Dimitry Shishin who hit a low shot to the left of Al Mazam.
UAE coach Marcelo Mendes substituted the goalkeeper and brought on Abbas Mousa but he could not stop the Russians from scoring again.
Shaykov added the fourth, two minutes into the third period with a header to the left of Abbas.
After two minutes Yury Gorchinskiy completed the rout by scoring the fifth with a long range free kick that deceived the keeper.
The international beach soccer tournament has been played for the last 13 years and Brazil have won 11 but this is the first time it has been held outside of Brazil.
The two defeats by Argentina 5-2 and Russia 5-0 show UAE have work to do before the Dubai finals next year.
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