Leading lights gather in Lisbon

Tuesday, 16 March 2004

The UEFA Futsal Cup second qualifying round takes place this week with the eight remaining contenders divided into two groups of four.

Ready for action

Group B is the first to get under way with SL Benfica of Portugal hosting the mini-tournament in Lisbon. They will be up against Action 21 Charleroi of Belgium, Prato C/5 of Italy and MNK Split of Croatia, with the teams playing each other once over three days of action on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Final chance

The Group B winners will progress to the UEFA Futsal Cup final, to be played over two legs on 24 April and 1 May. Their opponents there will be the winners of Group A, which is also taking place this week in Madrid.

New arena

Benfica are determined to perform well, especially in their centenary year. The club, who will be inaugurating the Pavilhão 1 at the new Estádio da Luz stadium, have not been in the best form of late in domestic action but with five Portuguese internationals and five Brazilians, they certainly possess strength in depth. Backing his players' professionalism, coach Alípio Matos said: "What matters the most is our attitude and we can only promise one thing: we will always play to win."

Matos determined

He added: "This is our number one goal in order to dignify this magnificent club and to properly reward all the people involved and all their efforts to stage this important event. Of course, we are favourites because we are playing at home, but the other teams have a very good standard and are at our level. It will be only the details that will make the difference."

Charleroi hoping

Certainly, Charleroi have every reason to be confident of making it third time lucky in the UEFA Futsal Cup, after finishing runners-up in the previous two editions. They have plenty of stars in their midst, such as Andre, Lúcio Rosa and Pedro Medina, although the latter two have had injury troubles of late.

Faithful fans

The Belgian champions for the last four years, Charleroi are facing a domestic battle to hang on to their crown. Futsal Kickers Gilly are five points clear, although Charleroi do have a game in hand on their rivals. While Benfica will have home advantage, Charleroi have plenty of European experience and, supported by a loyal band of supporters who have travelled by car from Belgium, they will have every chance.

Injury worries

Prato are the form team in Italy and will hope to continue the feel-good factor generated by the country's success at the 2003 UEFA European Futsal Championship. However, Prato do have injury concerns over goalkeeper Claudio Fiori, Carlos Chilavert Gennaro and Anderson Vasconcelos and all three have had to train separately to the rest of the squad.

Bearzi back

There are also doubts over the fitness of Leandro Pereira Ribeiro, Cristian Busato and Antonio Sansone but there was some good news for coach Jesus Velasco Tejada when the 28-year-old captain Andrea Bearzi was declared fit for the matches in Lisbon

Jarni involved

Last but not least in Group B, are Split who boast a host of experienced internationals in their ranks, including the former Real Madrid CF football star Robert Jarni. The club are second in the Croatian league, although they are only a point off top spot.

Proud record

Split have won the Croatian league and cup double for the last three years in a row and reached the semi-finals of the inaugural UEFA Futsal Cup in 2001/02, when it was played as a finals tournament instead of the current format.