Cuba will play in poole B at Futsal World Cup

HAVANA, Cuba, May 20 (acn) Cuba was included in Group B for Colombia 2016 Futsal World Cup, planned for September 10 to October 1st.

The six groups of four countries each were known yesterday in the draw that took place in the city of Medellin, one of the venues of the tournament alongside Bucaramanga and Cali.
The Cubans will play in that poole at Ivan de Bedout Coliseum, in Medellin, along with Egypt, Thailand and Russia, their rivals in that order on September 10, 13 and 16.
To access the round-of-sixteen, the Caribbean squad must win at least one match, as the top two in each group and the top four among the six third seats will advance there.
It will be quite a challenge given that Russia is the current European runner-up and finished fifth in the last WC, besides counting with 4 Brazilian naturalized players, including Eder Lima, top scorer in the WC previous edition; and Egypt and Thailand, the latter as host, both reached the second stage on that occasion.
In its participation in Brazil 2008, Cuba lost 5-10 to Russia, 0-9 to the hosts, 1-4 to Japan and beat 10-2 Solomon Islands in a preliminary phase of a format that only included 20 teams.
The other event groups are:

Group A: Colombia, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Panama
Group C: Paraguay, Italy, Vietnam, Guatemala
Group D: Ukraine, Brazil, Mozambique, Australia
Group E: Argentina, Kazakhstan, Solomon Islands, Costa Rica
Group F: Iran, Spain, Morocco, Azerbaijan