Courtesy: UEFA.com


Ekaterinburg in form, Dinamo and Interviú slip

Saturday 18 April 2009

MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg will be in high spirits when they look to defend the UEFA Futsal Cup on home soil from Friday, after stretching their Russian league lead over semi-final opponents MFK Dinamo Moskva to nine points with eight games to go, while Interviú Madrid were held to a third consecutive draw in Spain.

Dinamo disappointment
Dinamo, aiming for a seventh straight domestic league title, had been having a good April, cutting Ekaterinburg's advantage to four points after beating them to win the Russian Cup. However, Dinamo's last two games before the UEFA Futsal Cup finals were at MFK Norilsky Nickel and in the first on Friday they were held 4-4. Aleksandr Fukin had put Dinamo 1-0 up and although they then fell behind, two Aleksandr Rakhimov goals made it 3-2 and Konstantin Maevski edged them 4-3 up before Marat Azizov's last-gasp equaliser. The next day, with Dinamo welcoming Cirilo back from injury, they seemed to have secured a draw with a Pavel Kobzar goal and two from Joan, but in the last minute Azizov claimed another timely strike to make it 4-3 to Norilsky.

Ekaterinburg take advantage
Ekaterinburg took full advantage with two wins at MFK Dina Moskva. Alexey Mokhov, Pavel Chistopolov and Damir Khamadiev secured a 3-1 win in the opening game. They then prevailed 6-2 with Konstantin Timoshchenkov scoring twice and Sergey Abramov, Chistopolov, Artem Chudinov and Konstantin Agapov also on target before two late consolations. Viz coach Sergei Skorovich, whose club have never won the Russian title, said: "We played very good futsal. I congratulated the lads on a perfect result."

Interviú held again
The semi-final between Ekaterinburg and Dinamo on Friday is preceded by Interviú's encounter with Kairat Almaty, with the winners to face off on Sunday. Kairat's domestic season is complete with the Kazakhstan double secured, but Interviú are still playing for top seeding in the eight-team Spanish play-offs. They still lead the table but for the third game running drew on Saturday, 5-5 at FC Barcelona, four days after the same result against Lobelle de Santiago FS. Schumacher scored twice in the first three minutes and Neto made it 3-0, and further goals from Betao and Jordi Torras put Interviú 5-3 up with eleven minutes left only for Barcelona to strike twice. ElPozo Murcia FS won 2-0 at UD Guadaljara FS to close the gap to four points, with five regular season games to Interviú's four.








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