Courtesy: UEFA.com


Italy edge out Croatia for bronze

Italy claimed Futsal EURO bronze for the third time after goalkeeper Stefano Mammarella's late clincher denied the hosts.

Saturday 11 February 2012

Croatia 1-3 Italy

by Paul Saffer from Arena Zagreb

Despite a late surge from hosts Croatia, Italy held on to finish third in UEFA Futsal EURO 2012.

The Azzurri have plenty of experience of this fixture, having played in five of the seven, and they recovered from their 1-0 semi-final loss to Spain to go two up through Saad Assis and Humberto Honorio. Backed by only the second-ever Futsal EURO crowd above 10,000, Croatia pulled one back through Jakov Grcic, but late on Italy goalkeeper Stefano Mammarella drop-kicked into an empty net. Still, Croatia's run to their best finish, watched by a total of not far below 50,000 people, will live in the memory.

Just as in their semi-final loss here to Russia, Croatia had a nightmare first minute. Goalkeeper Ivo Jukic had already made a double save when he denied Alessandro Patias, only for Assis to beat him with a low shot from the rebound.

Italy continued to have the bulk of the chances but it was almost 1-1 midway through the half after a flowing home move ended with Dario Marinovic shooting just across the face of goal in his bid for a sixth finals strike.

Probably the keeper of the tournament, Mammarella did well to save from Marinovic at the start of the second period. Italy remained in control, however, and were two up on 26 minutes when Honorio pounced on a loose pass.

Croatia coach Mato Stankovic had just opted against using Tihomir Novak as flying goalkeeper before the second goal, but now opted for the tactic that got them back in it against Russia. Within a couple of minutes it paid off again as Josip Suton's cross was turned in at the far post by Grcic.

Novak remained, and Croatia pushed and pushed. However, with barely a minute left Mammarella punted the ball into an unguarded net.




Courtesy: UEFA.com


Medallist Mammarella credits Italy team-mates

Italy keeper Stefano Mammarella hailed his "exceptional" team-mates after scoring the goal that clinched a 3-1 third-place victory against immensely proud hosts Croatia.

Saturday 11 February 2012

by Francesco Corda & Elvir Islamovic from Arena Zagreb

Roberto Menichelli, Italy coach
First of all I want to congratulate Croatia, it was a great match they played very well and for us winning this match means a lot due to the strength of our opponents. As for ourselves, I am happy above all for my players who earned this medal and this tournament will always remain in our memories and I want to mention the great crowd tonight. We are very happy about this win.

Of course futsal experts recognise that [Stefano] Mammarella is one of the best goalkeepers. For me it is difficult to single out players, I like to underline the team performance. The team's successes are obtained collectively, not due to single players, that's how we think, but Mammarella is for sure one of the best in the world.

Stefano Mammarella, Italy goalkeeper
We wanted to win this game and we managed to do it. We gave our all against Spain, but now the best we could do was to gain the bronze medal, we wanted it at any cost. This was a great Italian futsal team, formed by exceptional guys.

I score only on important occasions. I already scored against Benfica in the UEFA Futsal Cup [semi-finals last April], you have to say that I'm lucky in UEFA competitions! Me the best goalkeeper in the world? I do not feel it, absolutely. I try to analyse every game and I always look to the future. That's the way I am.

Sergio Romano, Italy defender
This for us is a starting point and we are happy about this. There are many regrets as we didn't make the final and didn't win our group, but we deserved this achievement. We were under pressure a little when Croatia used a flying goalkeeper, but you can understand that. We had more chances than them, the result is right. I'm happy for Mammarella, he scored a great goal.

To play in such an arena is beautiful, even when the fans are not for you. I saw many people and this means the movement is growing. Now we rest ourselves a little, then we will think of the FIFA [Futsal] World Cup play-off with Norway.

Mato Stankovic, Croatia coach
We repeated some mistakes from the semi-final, we conceded an early goal again. We were preparing for this all day, trying to avoid those mistakes, but, unfortunately we conceded in the first minute again. Later we played well and I am glad that we made Italy live in fear for a few minutes. Late in the match we had a few good chances, but we didn't take them.

But I want to congratulate my players, a few years ago we couldn't take hard pressure from those opponents and today we can play equally in some parts of the match. If a team attracts 15,000 people to an arena, then it means something. If this dream story continues we can have Croatia between fifth and eighth in the world. That would be fantastic.

Frane Despotovic, Croatia forward
Unfortunately we lost out on a medal, but it isn't a reason to be sad. We achieved a huge success by getting among the four best teams in Europe. In preparation for this match we talked a lot about not conceding a goal at the beginning. But it happened again. We were fighting hard later on and deserved the huge support of our fans. These two weeks were like a dream for us and I hope part of this will continue in our next matches.




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