Courtesy: UEFA.com


Drama to the end in Main round

Sunday 4 October 2009

The last five places in the UEFA Futsal Cup Elite round were filled on Sunday as Luparense Calcio A5, FC Time Lviv, MNK Potpićan 98, Iberia 2003 Tbilisi and FC Marlène joined eleven other sides in the 14 October draw.

Comfortable win
In two of the Main round pools concluding on Sunday, both qualifying slots were undecided. That was the case in Group 1, being played in Debrecen's Fönix Arena, and Time and Luparense will hope their successes will inspire their respective nations Ukraine and Italy in their UEFA European Futsal Championship Group B fixtures there in January. Time were first to progress, defeating already-eliminated SC Tornado Chisinau 11-1, Maxym Pavlenko starring with five goals.

Jairo Manoel feat
Luparense pipped Time to first place on goal difference after a 10-0 win against Hungarian hosts MVFC Berettyóújfalu, who would have gone through themselves with a victory. Italian international Jairo Manoel, who had not previously scored in the mini-tournament, managed eight goals to end as leading Main round striker.

Marlène make it
Group 6 came to a thrilling conclusion. Dutch champions Marlène knew that a victory against bottom side Erebuni Yerevan could ensure their progress and they prevailed 9-0, capped by a Sander De Zwart hat-trick in the last three minutes. However, it was still open in the other game, where Iberia, the only side to enter all nine editions of this tournament, needed to avoid a three-goal defeat by Romanian hosts FC CIP Deva to go through a round for the first time.

Iberia landmark
Iberia scored twice late in the half but Deva were level by the break and three goals in the last five minutes put the home side into a qualifying position. However, Rudolpho Da Costa struck with 66 seconds left to pull the score back to 5-3 and take the Georgian champions through behind Marlène in a three-way head-to-head tie-break, Deva missing out by a single goal.

Potpićan relief
One more place was yet to be decided from Group 5 in Croatia and hosts Potpićan were through even before kick-off of their game as AC Omonia lost 7-3 to Serbia's KMF Kolubara Lazarevac. In any case, Potpićan would have progressed as they drew 4-4 with group winners Araz Naxçivan of Azerbaijan.

Benfica top
Elsewhere, first position still had to be confirmed in Group 4 and former finalists SL Benfica took that honour with a 4-2 win against Slovenian hosts KMN Puntar, who had also already booked their Elite round berth. Viten Orsha ended third, the Belarussian champions beating Montenegro Stars Budva 2-1 with a Vadym Ivanov goal five seconds from time.

2009/10 UEFA Futsal Cup Elite round entrants

Draw 14 October, matches 14-22 November

Four group winners progress to finals in April

Seeds (bye to Elite round)
Interviú Madrid (ESP, holders)
MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg (RUS)
ElPozo Murcia FS (ESP)
AFC Kairat Almaty (KAZ)

Main round winners
Group 1: Luparense Calcio A5 (ITA)
Group 2: FK Era-Pack Chrudim (CZE)
Group 3: Action 21 Charleroi (BEL)
Group 4: SL Benfica (POR)
Group 5: Araz Naxçivan (AZE)
Group 6: FC Marlène (NED)

Main round runners-up
Group 1: FC Time Lviv (UKR)
Group 2: FK Nikars Riga (LVA)
Group 3: Athina '90 Athens (GRE)
Group 4: KMN Puntar (SVN)
Group 5: MNK Potpićan 98 (CRO)
Group 6: Iberia 2003 Tbilisi (GEO)







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