Courtesy: People's daily on line


Czech Republic and Azerbaijan into Euro Futsal semis

January 26, 2010

The Czech Republic and Azerbaijan beat Italy and Ukraine apiece on Monday in the quarterfinals of the UEFA European Futsal Championships.

Both games ended 3-3 after normal time and went to penalty shoot-outs.

Italy, who finished second in 2007, were favorites to beat the Czechs in Debrecen, having comfortably qualified from their group. The Czechs meanwhile have less of a pedigree in futsal and struggled to get past Hungary in the group stages.

Italy dominated the first half but only led 2-1 at half time, through goals from Vinicius Duarte and star striker Saad Assis. The resilient Czechs, however, scored twice within 5 minutes thanks to a Zdenek Slama goal and a deflected own goal off Duarte to lead 3-2. In a hectic finish, Assis snatched his fifth goal of the tournament to equalize and bring the game to penalties.

Czech goalkeeper Libor Gercak saved Italy's first three penalties before goalkeeper David Fric scored the last Czech penalty to settle the tie. In the semifinal on Thursday, the Czechs will play the winners of the Spain/Russia match.

In the other quarterfinal in Budapest, Azerbaijan's attacking style came up against the more defensive counter-attacking Ukrainians. Both tactics yielded goals with the teams level 3-3 at the end of normal time. Rizvan Farzaliyev shot home the winning penalty to knock out Ukraine.

The Azeris, who are playing in their first ever Euro finals, will play either Serbia or Russia in the semifinal on Thursday.


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