Courtesy: UEFA.com

Czech Republic find scoring boots

Monday 29 October 2007

by Ladislav Josef

from Prague

The Czech Republic are in goalscoring form ahead of the UEFA European Futsal Championship after twice defeating Malta 11-0 in their last games before the finals in Porto from 16-25 November.

Work-out
Although Malta are not one of the continent's prime forces, they have an experienced coach in Michal Støíž, who led the Czech Republic in the last FIFA Futsal World Cup and European Championship final tournaments. So it was a good work-out for the home side, who were keen to bounce back from last month's defeat by Poland in the Hodonin tournament, and coach Tomas Neumann was able to try out a number of candidates for his 14-man finals squad.

Comfortable win
In the first game in Kladno, Roman Mares, Martin Dlouhy and Lukas Resetar scored in the opening four minutes. By half-time it was 7-0 as David Fric added another, Zdenek Slama struck twice and Roman Mares claimed his second. His brother Michael Mares scored within a minute of the break, Roman completed his hat-trick and Petr Vladyka and Jiri Novotný took the tally into double figures.

Second victory
Two days later in Havlickuv Brod, it was 6-0 at half-time after a Martin Dlouhy hat-trick, two goals by Michael Mares and another from Tomas Sluka. Michael Mares's own treble was complete in the 22nd minute and Pavel Formanek, Slama, Novotny and Resetar found the target late on, meaning nine of the 13 outfield players used in the two-game series scored at least once. The Czech Republic begin their Group A campaign in Porto against Romania on 16 November and also meet hosts Portugal and Italy.



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