Futsal Planet

Palestine vs Cyprus

OFFICIAL MATCH REPORT

by James Stringer from Tripoli

Cyprus will more than likely have been warned about complacency after their last match where they let a 3 goal lead turn into a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Albania. What ever was said clearly hadn’t obtained the desired effect as Palestine came out the stronger and almost scored through Alikkawi Eid. He watched on in despair as his shot was plucked from under the crossbar by Skampilis Anastasios.
Palestine’s goal came from Altalmas Zeyad when he received the ball and smashed it into the net to give Palestine the lead. Shortly after Chrysostomou Chrysostomos hit the post for Cyprus and Loucas Siikis went close as Palestine started to sit back. Papadopoulos Iakovos was booked for talking back to the referee and after a well worked move he found himself having a shot that whistled past the post from the left hand side.
Abudan Ihsan smashed a shot towards goal and it would have been only for Skampilis Anastasios to tip it wide for Cyprus. Captain Chrysostomou Chrysostomos collected a cearance from the keeper and raced through to smash a shot against the post, from the resulting corner Papadopoulos Iakovos has an effort that cracks against the post... the woodwork and some fantastic defending was saving Palestine from conceding.

Cyprus pressed and pressed for an equalizer before half time but to continually be denied by some amazing defending and the post, which continues to come to Palestine’s rescue. Cyprus revert to and from a fly keeper in the final minutes of the half but could not find a way through the defence and went into the interval losing to Palestine.

Cyprus came back out looking a different side that went in at the interval but the Palestinian’s post still prevented them from scoring, it was Palestine’s sixth player today. Palestine then had a great chance to double their lead only for Skampilis Anastasios to make a smart stop. Cyprus were awarded a free kick on the 6m mark that was quickly closed down by Palestine.

A well worked corner from Mavroudis Kyriakos was played to Christodoulou Christos who fired a speculative shot over the bar. A pass back to the Palestine keeper caused outrage on the Palestine bench and the coach was eventually led to the stands, the free kick was struck well by Papadopoulos Iakovos but it cannons back off the post. After that Cyprus got the goal that the post was denying them, Chrysostomou Chrysostomos finds the back of the net and celebrated with the rest of the players, it had been coming for Cyprus.

Almost instantly though Palestine regained the lead, the ball was worked through the middle and found it’s way through to Huthut Hasan as he slid in at the far post. Cyprus battled hard to get another goal as Papadopoulos Iakovos and Mavroudis Kyriakos both go close with Papadopoulos Iakovos managing to strike the post again. Chrysostomou Chrysostomos took on the whole Palestinian team showing some deft touches on his way through to goal only to be let down by a terrible shot by his teammate.

With just under 5 minutes to go Cyprus reverted to and from a fly keeper looking to over run the Palestinian defence and with both teams on 5 fouls each it was only a matter of time until a 10m penalty was given. Cyprus was awarded it and Chrysostomou Chrysostomos was denied by a fantastic save from Albattrawi Hussein. The keeper then produced a double save from the impressive Papadopoulos Iakovos to keep his side with the advantage. Palestine were next to get a chance from the 10m spot only for a foul to occur and instead it was now taken 8m out, Altalmas Zeyad was booked for interfering with the ball but but smashed in the penalty all the same. Cyprus struck right back with Papadopoulos Iakovos finding the net from close range to set up an exciting finale.

Palestinian’s 6th man (the post) couldn’t save them forever and Chrysostomou Chrysostomos scored in the dying seconds to set up a penalty shoot out in what had proved to be a very exciting game of Futsal. In the end it was a cruel way for Palestine to lose, conceding with seconds to go and missing 2 penalties but that’s Futsal sometimes.

Most Valuable Player The Palestinian post…. No actually Chrysostomou Chrysostomos had to say “I thought to lose last night was bad luck but we wanted to win today and we got a lucky escape. We love posts, we have posts in our country and by scoring in the way that we did it was important to win the penalty shoot out”. On a side note, Cyprus missed the attacking flair of Manoli Manolis as he sat this one out injured, he assured me that is working very hard with his medical staff and hopes to be available for tomorrows game.

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