Courtesy: News.AZ


Azerbaijan hopeful of reaching European futsal final

by Elmir Aliyev

Thu 28 January 2010

Azerbaijan meet Portugal in the semi-final of the European Futsal Championship at 20:30 Baku time today.

The game will be played in Debrecen, Hungary.

Azerbaijan's Brazilian coach, Alecio, has named a squad of 12 rather than 14 players, sticking with the small core of a dozen players who have played in the three games in Budapest so far. One of those, Alves, is doubtful for the Portugal game, but quarter-final hero Rizvan Farzaliyev is confident that some of other players in the squad are capable of making the step up.

“Rajab Farajzade, Namig Mammadkarimov and Sergey Chuykov are all ready to play, but it's for the coaches to decide who will play and when,” Farzaliyev said. “Maybe Mammadkarimov will come out and have a great match in the final – this is entirely possible.”

Farzaliyev said Azerbaijan have now changed their expectations for their first campaign in any UEFA national-team final tournament.

“We had the goal of reaching the knock-out stage, but now I think we have a chance of making the final,” he said. “We know how the Portuguese play and what they can do. We played Portugal before and they're a good team. Anything can happen.”


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