Courtesy: UEFA.com

Free-scoring Hungary set pace

Tuesday, 20 February 2007

Russia and Hungary both made winning starts to their UEFA European Futsal Championship campaigns as the qualifying round began with Group F.

Madarász hat-trick
Runners-up two years ago in Ostrava, Russia defeated Lithuania 4-1 but Hungary, staging the mini-tournament in Dabas and hoping to emulate their first qualification in 2005, moved into the group lead with a 10-2 win against Greece. By half-time they were already 6-0 up thanks to two goals each from János Madarász, Zsolt Gyurcsányi and Tamás Szente. Szabolcs Tóth made it seven early in the second half and Madarász completed his hat-trick on 24 minutes. Charilaos Grapdad and Ilias Bousmpouras pulled two goals back for Greece but Péter Sivák and Miklós Tóth ensured Hungary reached double figures against a team they beat only 4-2 in 2005 qualifying.

Russia prevail
Russia were given a tougher test by Lithuania, but took the lead on 12 minutes through Vladislav Shayakhmetev and Konstantin Maevski added another soon after. Antanas Bulosas pulled one back before the break, but five minutes into the second half Pavel Kobzar restored Russia's two-goal cushion and Sergei Malyshev completed the win with four minutes remaining. Russia now face Greece on Wednesday, while Hungary take on Lithuania before their encounter with the 2005 runners-up on Friday for the one available place in the finals in Porto.



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