Spain ended Thailand's campaign at the 2012 Futsal World Cup with a 7-1 victory

Hosts were outgunned by title favourites

• Published: 12/11/2012 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: Sports

Spain ended Thailand's campaign at the 2012 Futsal World Cup with a 7-1 victory at Nimibutr Gymnasium last night.

Kritsada Wongkaeo scores Thailand’s only goal. PHOTOS BY PATIPAT JANTHONG

Two-time world champions Spain scored seven unanswered goals before Kritsada Wongkaeo, who returned from suspension, grabbed a consolation goal for the hosts in the final moments.
Spain set up a quarter-final clash with Russia or the Czech Republic who meet in the second round today.
The Spaniards have now won all their six meetings with Thailand including 8-0 and 6-4 wins in Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima in warm-up games in August.
In their first ever competitive contest last night, the European champions proved too strong for the Thais, who did well in the opening stages.
Thailand were cheered on by a vocal crowd but it couldn't prevent them falling behind after nine minutes, with Torras rounding off a counter-attack.
This appeared to spark the War Elephants into life, testing Spain a number of times, but Torras was on hand to double the lead before half-time, converting a cross at the far post.
In the second half, the Spaniards were ruthless and scored five more goals before Kritsada salvaged some pride for the hosts just one minute to go.
He fired in to the bottom right-hand corner of Spain's net. The Thai players and supporters celebrated as if they had won the game and duly left the tournament on the back of a priceless moment for them.
It was Thailand's first ever second-round match in four World Cup appearances.
''The difference today between Spain and Thailand is that when you take too many risks your opponent will score,'' Thailand coach Victor Hermans said. ''We had some chances when it was 0-0 but we failed to capitalise and against teams like Spain you must take the chances you have. In the second half we asked the players to score the first goal and make it 2-1 but instead we conceded more goals.
''Our team spirit is good and the only thing we need is experience. But we have improved considerably.''
The Dutch coach, whose contract with Thailand ends in 2014, said he would go upcountry to help teach futbal in rural areas.
Spain coach Venancio Lopez was pleased with his side's performance but al;so paid tribute to the hosts.
''We played a great match using our head properly. It could have been a very difficult game but we made it look easy,'' Lopez said.
''I think that the key to winning was scoring the third and fourth goal in the second half. I want to congratulate Thailand because they decided to play offensive football and that is very good for futsal.''

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/sports/320746/thailand-eliminated-by-ruthless-spaniards