In Group D, Czech Republic took a step closer to realising their quest of reaching the second round of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008 by defeating Libya 4-2 at the Maracanazinho in an entertaining match.

The enthusiastic crowd in Rio had to wait a full seven minutes for the first goal due to some fine goalkeeping from Mohamed Alsharif in the Libya goal who made two spectacular saves to deny Roman Mares and Jan Janovsky. However, he was powerless to stop Michal Mares' spot-kick, awarded after Janovsky was felled in the box by Mohamed Suleiman.

Czech Republic doubled their advantage eight minutes later due to a rare goalkeeping error from Alsharif, who failed to hold on to a Marek Kopecky's shot, which slid into the net. The goal spurred Libya into action and they pulled one back two minutes before half-time through Yousef Mohamed.

Four minutes after the re-start, Libya were level, with Mohamed Rahoma's delicious effort restoring parity, but the Asians' joy was short-lived as just two minutes later, Martin Dlouhy put his team back on top. Libya almost grabbed an equaliser when Rahoma's goalbound effort was blocked on the line by Jiri Novotny with the ‘keeper beaten. Then in the 39th minute, Tomas Sluka scored to seal the game's fate.

Libya now leave the tournament without winning a game, but have won plenty of admirers for the way they played, while Czech Republic travel to Brasilia on Thursday to face Iran in a game which will seal their fate in the tournament.

Iran kept their hopes of reaching the next round with a 4-2 win over Libya at the Maracanazinho in Group D of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008. It was a deserved victory for the Asian champions over their African counterparts and leaves Libya without a win from their three matches so far.

Iran took control of the match from the first whistle by putting a lot of pressure on Libya. Their gameplan worked perfectly when they found themselves 2-0 up in the first seven minutes thanks to goals from Mohammad Hashemzadeh and Mohammad Taheri.

Despite the backing from the local crowd, Libya did their best to improve, but spurred on by the influence of Rabie Abdel, Iran scored again in the 17th minute with Hashemzadeh claiming his second of the game.

Only some outstanding goalkeeping from Mohamed Alsharif kept Libya in the game, but they soon found themselves with a fighting chance when goals from Abdel and Majid Latifi pulled the score back to 3-2 five minutes after half-time.

However, Iran kept their cool, focus on their game plan and put the game beyond doubt eight minutes from time when Mostafa Tayyebi scored his first goal of the tournament to ensure that the west Asians went second in the Group D standings.

After being held by Iran in their opening match, Venancio Lopez and his Spain side were determined to defeat Libya and they did so comfortably at the Maracanazinho. A total of 23 shots on target compared to Libya's four and 70 per cent of possession tells its own story of a game dominated by the Europeans.

Lopez changed Spain's system to good effect, adopting a quickier and more compact approach and it paid dividends as early as the third minute when Javi Rodriguez put them in front. 13 minutes later they doubled their advantage when Fernando's precise pass found Alvaro who fired the ball home. 2-0 was how it remained at half-time, but it could have been more had it not been for the heroic effort of Libyan goalkeeper Mohamed Alsharif.

Despite vocal support from the crowd and some nice play from Rabie Abdel, Spain's dominance was still apparent in the second half. Lopez's side were content to move the ball around until their opportunity came, which is precisely how Daniel scored the third, and final, goal if the game. It was a confident performance from Spain who face Czech Republic in their next game on Sunday.

Daniel, Spain player
Luckily we managed to get over our first-day nerves and I felt the team played better. We need to keep on winning and get back to our best, but this was an important win because it's a tough group and we don't have the fans behind us here. Every point is worth gold.

Mato Stankovic, Libya coach
I thought we played well even though we had our best two players out with injury. This is all about gaining experience as far as we're concerned, so the result doesn't really surprise me. At the end of the day, Spain are favourites to win the title.