Courtesy: UEFA.com


Dinamo outdo Ekaterinburg to retain cup

Sunday 5 April 2009

MFK Dinamo Moskva will go into their UEFA Futsal Cup semi-final at MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg on 24 April in high spirits after beating their rivals 7-4 on aggregate to retain the Russian Futsal Cup.

Dinamo delight
Dinamo defeated Ekaterinburg a year ago to take the trophy as part of a domestic double, but this season Viz have held the upper hand, leading the league by six points after beating the capital club three times and drawing the other of their four fixtures. However, Dinamo have been in fine form since the recent return of Yuri Rudnev as coach and have now won the cup for a fourth time, despite the absence through injury of several key men including Cirilo.

First-leg draw
In Wednesday's first leg at the Ekaterinburg Palace of Sport, where the UEFA Futsal Cup finals will be held, Dinamo twice trailed the European champions. But goals from Artem Chudinov and Damir Khamadiev were cancelled out by Aleksandr Rakhimov and Vladislav Shayakhmetov, the former Viz player making it 2-2 in the last minute.

Decisive result
The return on Sunday was a different matter, with Dinamo this time dominant. Aleksandr Fukin, Anatoli Badretdinov, Konstantin Maevski, Rakhimov and Pavel Kobzar all found the target for Dinamo, with only two Pavel Chistopolov strikes in reply. Rudnev said: "We've lost some of our top players, but today we were well organised and played mobile futsal, which makes me very happy. We set ourselves the goal of winning this trophy despite all the difficulties and we carried out that task." Ekaterinburg coach Sergei Skorovich added: "Today, two equally matched teams of the highest level met and Dinamo won, which means they were stronger."

Interviú victory
Of the other two UEFA Futsal Cup semi-finalists, Kairat Almaty retained the Kazakhstan title last weekend and in midweek suffered two rare defeats, losing 5-3 and 7-4 at home to Ayat Rudny. Interviú Madrid prevailed 4-2 at Carnicer Torrejón FS with a Jaison own goal and two Jordi Torras strikes sandwiching a Betão effort. They lead the regular season table by seven points ahead of ElPozo Murcia FS and look likely to have top seeding for the eight-team championship play-off.







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com