Courtesy: UEFA.com


Murcia and Dinamo begin brightly

Saturday, 19 March 2005

By Petr Handl

El Pozo Murcia FS and MFC Dinamo Moskva were both winners on the first day of the UEFA Futsal Cup Group B mini-tournament being played in Moscow.

Final showdown

With Action 21 Charleroi of Belgium already through to next month's two-legged final after winning Group A last week, Murcia and Dinamo, of Spain and Russia respectively, know they have every chance of joining them. After another round of fixtures on Sunday, the two sides are scheduled to meet in a potential winner-takes-all encounter on the last day of group action on Tuesday.

Paulo Roberto class

In the day's first match, Murcia won 8-0 against FC Dorozhnik Minsk of Belarus. Indeed, it was only the excellent performance of Pavel Chvaiba, in goal for Dorozhnik, that stopped Murcia from scoring before the ninth minute, when Spanish international Kike finally broke the deadlock. Team captain Paulo Roberto then scored twice more before half-time and added another double in the second half as Murcia took full control, with Kike also getting a second.

Cirilo hat-trick

In the second game, Dinamo were 6-2 winners against FC Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine in front of more than 1,600 fans at the Druzhba hall. Several VIPs, including members of the Russian parliament and the country's sports minister Vyacheslav Fetisov, were among those present. Dinamo enjoyed a solid start with first-half goals from Sergei Malyshev and their Brazilian star Cirilo. Four more were added after the interval with Cirilo going on to complete a hat-trick as the Russian champions made the most of home advantage.