Courtesy: UEFA.com


Futsal EURO preview: Group A

Tuesday 12 January 2010

by Paul Saffer

Hosts Hungary and Azerbaijan kick off the UEFA European Futsal Championship next Tuesday in Budapest and Group A, which also includes former semi-finalists the Czech Republic, looks the tightest of the four. uefa.com profiles the contenders for the two quarter-final berths on offer.

HUNGARY
The hosts lost all three games in 2005, their only previous finals appearance, but Hungary were one of the first nations to shine in international futsal in the 1980s. Professional art historian Mihály Kozma, who coached Hungary five years ago, remains in charge and has led his team in a packed programme of friendlies over the last month, including three meetings with world champions Brazil and wins against the likes of Croatia, Guatemala and Poland.

Best performance: 2005 group stage

Key players: Zoltán Balazs (goalkeeper), Zsolt Gyurcsanyi, Tamas Lodi, Janos Madarasz, Szabolcs Toth

Mihaly Kozma, coach: "One of the most important things to achieve at this tournament is to make futsal more popular in the country. Of course, our aim is to get out of the group – but we have lots of young players as well: for them it will be an experience."


AZERBAIJAN
This is Azerbaijan's first appearance at this level but they are far from outsiders. They were unbeaten in qualifying and finished second to Portugal in their group, and only then after conceding a late equaliser against the 2007 semi-finalists. Alecio has put together a potent blend of naturalised South Americans and local talent like Vitaliy Borisov and the Brazilian coach and much of the Azerbaijan squad are involved with champion club Araz Naxçivan, who in November won through to this spring's four-team UEFA Futsal Cup finals.

Best performance: first qualification

Qualifying: Portugal 3-3, Poland 4-3, Finland 5-1 (Group 6 runners-up)

Key players: Thiago Rodrigues, Radzhab Faradzhzade, Vitaliy Borisov

Alecio, coach: "This is a good opportunity for us, but that also applies to Hungary and the Czech Republic."


CZECH REPUBLIC
Whereas Hungary and Azerbaijan have little experience at this level, the Czech Republic are in their fifth straight European finals and have also gone to the last two FIFA Futsal World Cups. However, they would not have qualified had it not been for two last-minute Martín Dlouhy goals against Croatia, turning a 2-1 deficit into the 3-2 win they required and in 12 fixtures since they have won just once in 40 minutes and lost five. They also have to banish the memory of a miserable 2007 campaign in Porto, when they suffered three defeats and conceded 17 goals. However, due to injury they are without brothers Roman and Michal Mares, their key players over the last decade with 81 international goals between them.

Best performance: 2003 semi-finals

Qualifying: Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-4, Latvia 2-0, Croatia 3-2 (Group 3 winners)

Key players: Martin Dlouhy, Marek Kopecky

Tomas Neumann, coach: "It's a very interesting group because I think anybody can win it. The group has no favourites. I think that everybody is on the same level."



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