Iran won the Champion of Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup, for the third time. The Persians had already won the title in 2013 and 2018.

Mostafa Kiani (penalty), Saeid Piramoun, Mohammad Mokhtari, Hamid Behzadpour, Mohammad Ahmadzadeh, and Mohammad Masoumizadeh scored for Team Melli.

Llorenç, Eduard and Adrian (penalty) were on target for Spain.

Iran’s Amirhossein Akbari was named as the tournament’s top scorer with six goals.

Earlier on the day, the UAE defeated Russia 2-1 in the third-place playoff.

Iran is the best-ranked beach soccer team in Asia and sits fifth in the world behind Brazil, Russia, Portugal, and Italy.

Iran has won the AFC Beach Soccer Championship a record two times (2013, 2017).

Team Melli has also appeared in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup seven times, reaching the quarterfinals on three occasions (2013, 2015, 2017), and finishing in third place once (2017).

The Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup is an international beach soccer tournament which is held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates every November as the finale of the competitive international beach soccer season. The invitation-only tournament has been held annually since the inaugural edition in 2011. It will continue until at least 2020.

The Intercontinental Cup is second only to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup as the largest and most prestigious event on the international beach soccer circuit, featuring an exclusive assembly of the world’s very best national teams from each continent. Since the World Cup is a biannual competition, this event is now the most important annual international beach soccer tournament.

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Team Melli will begin title defense against Oman and Iraq in Group D following the official draw in Pattaya, Thailand on Monday.

Fifteen teams, three more than the inaugural edition in 2017, will battle to be crowned champions next March.

Host nation Thailand will face Afghanistan, Malaysia and Palestine in Group A while the United Arab Emirates, who finished second in the 2017 edition in Terengganu, Malaysia, were drawn alongside Lebanon, China PR and Kyrgyz Republic in Group B.

Japan, ranked third in the competition in 2017, take on Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait in Group C.

The second edition of the premier beach soccer championship in Asia will be an important competition as the top three teams will represent the Continent in the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Paraguay.

The AFC Beach Soccer Championship Thailand 2019 will be played in Pattaya from March 9-17, 2019.

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