Courtesy FIFA.com Surprises galore in UEFA Futsal The first round of European qualifiers for the FIFA Futsal World Championship Chinese Taipei 2004 produced a string of unexpected results. Russia, tipped by many to qualify, fell by the wayside, as did Holland and Croatia, while other big names such as Italy and Spain avoided the banana skins and live to fight another day. FIFA.com reviews the state of play in the European zone before the last round of crunch play-off matches in December.
Giants felledContested by eight groups of three teams and two groups of four, the first phase of qualifying brought surprises aplenty. Despite finishing fourth at Guatemala 2000, the Russians went down 3-2 in Sarajevo to Bosnia-Herzegovina, who ended up topping Group 3 after beating Macedonia.
Dmitry Gorin, one of the Russian team’s leading lights, neatly summed up the feelings of the squad in the wake of their elimination: “the day after the defeat, I felt as if it had all just been a bad dream. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.”
Other teams who will be watching the tournament from the comfort of their armchairs include Holland and Croatia, both of whom were present in Guatemala four years ago. Drawn in Group 5, the Dutch fell well short of their high standards when they could only draw with Lithuania. Cue Belarus, who took advantage of this stalemate to sneak ahead of both teams and clinch their place at the finals.
Enjoying home advantage, the Croats kicked off with a whitewash against Armenia (9-0). That was a result that proved misleading, as their decisive clash with Hungary turned into a cold shower for the home fans in Gospic. Even the presence of Robert Jarni, one of the great names of Croatian football, could not prevent the home side going down 7-5 and heading for a premature exit.
Still on courseSpain and Italy avoided such mishaps and remain on course to secure a ticket for the upcoming world summit.
Reigning world champions Spain let their experience do the talking in Latvia, where they hardly broke sweat in overcoming the hosts and Slovakia. European champions Italy demonstrated their potential once again by winning at home against Belgium, Finland and France, chalking up an impressive 22 goals for no reply in the process!
Also still in with a shout along with these two big hitters are Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzogovina, the Ukraine, Belarus, Portugal, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
UEFA has carried out the following draw. The two-legged home and away ties will be played on 10 and 17 December to establish the five countries that will qualify for Chinese Taipei 2004.
Spain – Slovenia
Poland – Portugal
Belarus – Ukraine
Bosnia-Herzegovina – Czech Republic
Hungary – Italy 
