The Iranians came from two goals down to take the third-place match to a dramatic penalty shootout, where six rounds of spot kicks were needed to decide the contest.
Both sides created a good opportunity to open the scoring. Ahmad Esmaeilpour had Iran�s best chance, but his chip over Bebe also sailed over the crossbar. At the other end, Samimi did well to deny Cardinal at close range.
Cardinal scored a quick-fire brace within the first minute of the restart for Portugal.
It required six rounds of penalties to decide this encounter. Iran�s back-up goalkeeper Sepehr Mohammadi made a pair of big saves, but his team-mates twice hit the woodwork with their spot-kick efforts.
Then after Portugal�s Joao Matos hit the post with his sixth-round penalty, Mehdi Javid stepped up to convert his spot-kick and ensure Iran�s best-ever finish to a Futsal World Cup, surpassing its fourth-place accomplishment at Hong Kong 1992.
By Tasnim News Agency
