Courtesy: UEFA.com

Six join Elite round lineup

Tuesday 11 September 2007

Six teams have won through to the Elite round of the UEFA Futsal Cup after seven Main round games were played across Europe this evening.

Matters decided
Futsal Topsport Antwerpen, KMF Municipum Casino Pljevlja, Luparense Calcio A5, FK Era-Pack Chrudim, KMF Marbo Beograd and Hapoel Ironi Rishon Lezion are all celebrating. Antwerpen of Belgium and Montenegro's first entrants Municipium confirmed the top two places in Group 4 after the conclusion of the mini-tournament in Hungary. Italian hopefuls Luparense cannot be dislodged from first place in Group 3 with the final round of games to come – while the qualifiers in Group 6 are confirmed as Chrudim and Beograd before they meet to decide first place on Thursday.

Straightforward
Antwerpen and Municipum were never in trouble tonight, recording 6-0 and 5-0 successes against Hungarian hosts Futsal Club Gödöllö and Athina '90 Athens of Greece respectively. It meant both ended up on seven points from their three Group 4 fixtures with the Belgian team top on goal . There is still one match to go for Luparense but they can relax a little before they take on eliminated FC Camelot Chisinau of Moldova on Thursday having beaten Slov-Matic Fofo Bratislava 1-0. The Italian side have six points from two games, meaning the meeting of Bratislava and Azerbaijani hosts Araz Naxçivan will decide who joins them in the next stage.

Kollar upbeat
The Slovakian side are ahead on goal difference. Bratislava are refusing to give in. The Slovakian club's coach Milan Kollar said: "We now have to focus on the next game. We are certainly improving and technically speaking my players have proved they are ready for any opponents." It promises to be a tough encounter against Araz Naxçivan, who will be cheered on by another capacity crowd at the Baku Sports Palace, with more than a million fans watching on televisión. Having won 4-1 against Camelot, with Agatahir Azimov scoring a hat-trick, confidence is certainly high.

Maximum points
Group 6's decisive games will have less riding on them but both Beograd and Czech hosts Chrudim will want to end on a high. They made sure of maximum points after two rounds with 3-2 and 7-3 wins against Ilves FS Tampere and Skövde AIK respectively, leaving those two beaten sides with no points. The Finnish and Swedish teams will play only for pride when they meet on Thursday.

Still open
The three-team Group 1 will also be settled the same day, but Ironi Rishon of Israel are through despite a 3-1 defeat by Clearex Chorzów. Having beaten FC Mapid Minsk 7-3 yesterday, Hapoel will definitely finish in one of the top two places and if Polish hosts Chorzów avoid a three-goal defeat by the Belarussian side on Thursdya, they will join them. Only two matches will be played on Wednesday as Group 5 gets under way with Croatian hosts HMNK Gospiæ taking on Iberia 2003 Tbilisi of Georgia and CIP Deva of Romania up against KMN Puntar of Slovenia.



Courtesy: UEFA.com


All square after Group 5 openers

Wednesday 12 September 2007

UEFA Futsal Cup Main round Group 5 looks like being a tight affair after both opening games were drawn 2-2 tonight in Croatia.

Points shared
Home team HMNK Gospiæ kicked off the mini-tournament against Georgia's Iberia 2003 Tbilisi, the only side to have played in every edition of this competition. European debutants Gospiæ were leading 1-0 at half-time, but Iberia fought back to share the points. It was a similar story when last season's Elite round entrants from Romania, CIP Deva, took on KMN Puntar of Slovenia. It was a goalless first half and both teams struck twice after the break, a useful point for Puntar who qualified from the Preliminary round.

Thursday deciders
On Thursday, Puntar take on Gospiæ and Deva are up against Iberia. Meanwhile, Groups 1, 3 and 6 reach their conclusions with two of the six available Elite round places from those pools still undecided, and Group 2 - containing 2004 runners-up SL Benfica, becomes the last mini-tournament to begin.



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