Courtesy: UEFA.com


Dinamo closing on Ekaterinburg

Tuesday 14 April 2009

MFK Dinamo Moskva closed the gap on UEFA Futsal Cup semi-final opponents MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg in the latest set of Russian Super League games and Interviú Madrid also stumbled while Kairat Almaty finished another Kazakhstan title-winning season on a high.

Dinamo wins
Viz, who will be defending the UEFA Futsal Cup on home territory from 24 to 26 April, went into the latest round of matches six points ahead of reigning Russian champions Dinamo but the gap is now down to four. Dinamo, who beat Ekaterinburg 7-4 on aggregate to retain the Russian Cup last week, were at home to MFK Spartak Shelkovo, and won the first game 4-3 with a last-gasp Vladislav Shayakhmetov goal, having previously seen a 3-1 lead disappear. The following day the capital club cruised to a 7-1 victory, with two goals by Anatoli Badretdinov and one each from Konstantin Maevski, Aleksandr Fukin, Aleksandr Rakhimov, Shayakhmetov and Tatu.

Khamadiev heroics
Meanwhile, Ekaterinburg were playing MFK CSKA Moskva, and in the first game were held 3-3, having trailed 1-0 and 3-1, but saved from defeat by a Damir Khamadiev hat-trick. A day later Viz were 3-1 winners as although an early Alexey Mokhov goal was cancelled out after the break, Pavel Chistopolov and Khamadiev scored in the last two minutes to keep Dinamo at arm's length.

Interviú held
Interviú, who face Kairat on 24 April before the two Russian sides are matched, remain top of the Spanish regular season table but were pegged back for two dramatic draws in four days. On Saturday they were held 5-5 by Lobelle de Santiago FS; Gabriel gave Interviú an early lead but the visitors swiftly moved ahead and although Betao equalised, Carlinhos claimed his second of the game to give Lobelle a 3-2 half-time advantage, extended shortly after the break by Leitao. In the space of one minute two Borja goals and one from Jordi Torras moved Interviú 5-4 up but Leitao equalised in the final seconds.

Second draw
On Tuesday they took on Futsal Cartagena in a game brought forward from the weekend of the UEFA Futsal Cup finals and after half an hour Interviú were 3-0 up with two Schumacher strikes either side of Javi Matía's own goal. But that player pulled one back at the other end with eight minutes left and Cobeta scored twice, the second in the dying seconds, to make it 3-3. Interviú are now six points ahead of ElPozo Murcia FS in the race for top seeding in the eight-team play-offs, though the capital side have five games left to their rivals' six. Kairat clinched their sixth straight championship with four games to spare and completed their fixture programme at the weekend, winning 6-3 and 2-1 at Tulpar Karagandy to end the campaign 12 points clear of Aktyubrentgen Aktobe.







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