Ukraine's Futsal Team Reaches Semi-Finals of 2024 World Cup For the First Time in 28 Years

The Ukrainian national futsal team has repeated its national record at the 2024 FIFA World Cup. The Ukrainians defeated Venezuela 9-4 and reached the semi-finals of the World Cup for the second time in history.

This was reported by Suspilne Sport.

The last time the Blue and Yellows played at this stage was in 2012 - they were defeated by Colombia (1-3).

This year, Ukraine's rival in the 1/4 finals is the Venezuelan national team, which is playing at the mundial for only the second time in history. The best result of the South American team at the World Cup was reaching the 1/8 finals in 2021.

The Ukrainian national team opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the first half. Danylo Abakshyn responded to a pass from Ihor Korsun and scored 1-0.

However, Venezuela equalised a minute later. The South American team launched a positional attack: Kevin Briceño passed into the penalty area, and Milton Francia closed the pass.

In the 14th minute, Ihor Cherniavskyi pulled the Venezuelan goalkeeper and passed the ball to Petro Shoturma, who hit the empty net. And two minutes later, Abakshin scored after Semenchenko's shot.

However, Venezuela managed to equalise within two minutes: first, Jesus Viamonte struck the Ukrainian goal, and then Alfredo Vidal restored parity.

By the end of the first half, Danylo Abakshyn scored a hat-trick in the 18th minute. At first, Venezuela was able to repel the Blue and Yellows' attack, but Abakshin took advantage of a mistake by Victor Carreño, from whom the ball bounced and scored.

With 24 seconds left in the first half, Nazar Shved increased the Blue and Yellows' lead to two goals with a shot under the crossbar.

In the first minute of the second half, Ukraine scored its sixth goal. Abakshin pulled the defenders to himself, passed to Rostyslav Semenchenko, who scored a goal in the fall.

In the 27th minute, Venezuela's goalkeeper Oleksandr Sukhov scored in the Venezuelan goal: he received a pass from the Swede, dragged the ball across the pitch and shot into the top left corner of the goal.

In the 30th minute, Venezuela scored one goal, but three minutes later Cherniavsky again increased the Blue and Yellows' lead to four goals.

Mykola Mykytyuk also scored a goal: he struck an empty net after a pass from Danylo Abakshin.

So far, the Blue and Yellows had only reached the semi-finals in their first tournament in 1996, where they finished fourth.

The next opponent of the national team will be Brazil, which beat Morocco in the 1/4 finals. The semi-final match will take place on Wednesday, 2 October.