Brazil, Ukraine, Argentina and debutants France are all through to this year’s FIFA Futsal World Cup in Uzbekistan after having come out tops through the groups stage, round of 16 and the quarterfinals. 

Semis will kick off on Wednesday, October 2, when Brazil face Ukraine in Tashkent.

On Thursday, October 3, Argentina will face France.

Third-place match will be played on Sunday, October 6 in Tashkent.

The final will follow later in the day.

The tournament’s most successful team so far has been Brazil with Marcel the top scorer. 

There have been 341 goals scored in 48 matches, averaging 7.1 goals per match up to the quarterfinals. Leading the pack is Brazil’s Marcel, who has scored an impressive 10 goals. 

Close behind is Argentina’s Alan Brandi with 7 goals.

Iran’s Salar Aghapour follows with 6 goals and several players are tied with 5 goals each, including Argentina’s Kevin Arrieta and Matías Rosa, Brazil’s Pito, Kazakhstan’s Arnold Knaub, and Venezuela’s Kevin Briceño.

Francis Lokoka, Abdessamad Mohammed and Raphael Reynaud discuss France beating Paraguay and reaching the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024 quarter-finals.

For France however, making it to the semi-finals is a dream come true. Making their first ever appearance at this global event, team member Abdessamad Mohammed summed it up after they beat Paraguay. “I’m not sure we could have dreamt for more than this,” he said. 

Fellow teammate Francis Lokoka added: “It is absolutely amazing. If somebody had told me this was going to happen, I would not have believed them in my wildest dreams.”

“It is unbelievable,” said coach Raphael Reynaud. “When we came here our aim was to make it through the group stage. But we are competitors so once we’d achieved that, we told ourselves that anything was possible. We believe that we can go far in this tournament.

“What is happening here is a dream come true, but we have worked hard to get here, putting the pieces together one step at a time. It is no accident that we have come this far. You do not beat Paraguay in a World Cup quarter-final by chance.”