Courtesy: UEFA.com


Iberia get up to speed

Monday 8 September 2008

Iberia 2003 Tbilisi showed the experience of having competed in every UEFA Futsal Cup as they took the early lead in Main round Group 5 with a 7-3 win against FK Nautara Kaunas while hosts FK Era-Pack Chrudim were held 2-2 by Hapoel Ironi Rishon Lezion.

Coach pleased
Preliminary round winners Nautara scored first but were 2-1 down at half-time and Iberia went on to gain a comfortable victory. Iberia coach Alik Sarkisian said: "My team took a while to get up to speed as we are not used to playing on this kind of surface. Gradually they got up to their usual standard and I would like to thank the players especially for the second half." Nautara assistant coach Marcin Kevièius Remingias said: "I would like to congratulate our opponents."

Chrudim frustrated
Czech side Chrudim, pipped with a late Kairat Almaty goal to the final four last season, trailed 1-0 at half-time but Petr Popelka and Tomas Sluka put them ahead within three minutes of the restart only for Oz Sabag to equalise late on. Chrudim coach Ota Stejskal said: "We went into this match to win but we were little bit surprised by the quality of our opponents, especially the individual quality of each player. We had many chances to score, but no luck." Hapoel's Landau Gil added: "For us a 2-2 draw is a very good result. We knew about the quality of the Czech team and we had respect but we were quite successful at he beginning of the match. Our plan for first part of the match was to defend very well – good defence with fast breaks and I'm satisfied with our performance and as well with the result. We conceded two goals in the second half, so we changed players' positions and it took us up a step and we scored."

Tuesday games
A win for Iberia against Hapoel on Tuesday would take them into the Elite round while later Chrudim take on Kaunas. Group 4 also gets underway in Debrecen's Fönix Arena, one of the venues for the 2010 UEFA European Futsal Championship, as FC Shakhtar Donetsk face Dutch champions FC Blok Beverwijk and Hungarian hosts MVFC Berettyóújfalu encounter Croatia's MNK Nacional Zagreb.



Courtesy: UEFA.com


Tables turned in Group 5

Tuesday 9 September 2008

FK Era-Pack Chrudim and Hapoel Ironi Rishon Lezion moved into position in UEFA Futsal Cup Main round Group 5 on Tuesday while former semi-finalists FC Shakhtar Donetsk made a good start to Group 4.

Second day wins
Czech hosts Chrudim and Hapoel, who both reached last season's Elite round, drew their opening game 2-2 while Iberia 2003 Tbilisi defeated FK Nautara Kaunas 7-3. But today Hapoel overcame Iberia 3-2 and Chrudim beat Nautara 6-1 to put themselves in the frame to take the two places in the next round after the last set of games on Thursday.

Chrudim delight
Hapoel took a 26th-minute lead through Shmuel Doron Chicko and although Mucado and Rudolpho Konqueti Da Costa then gave Iberia the lead, two goals from Adam Cohen edged the Israeli side to victory. Chrudim were three up at half-time through Lukáš Rešetár, Michal Mareš and Radovan Kroulík, and although Aurimas Ivaškevicius pulled one back for the Preliminary round winners, Tomáš Sluka, Kroulík and Petr Vladyka decided the game. If Chrudim avoid defeat against Iberia on Thursday both they and Hapoel will be through even if the Israeli side lose the earlier game against eliminated Nautara.

Shakhtar win
Shakhtar, who reached the last four in 2005/06, made a bright start to their bid as they defeated Dutch side FC Blok Beverwijk 4-0 with two Vassura goals and one each for Ramis Mansurov and Igor Moskvychov. It was a similar story for Croatia's MNK Nacional Zagreb, who took a half-time lead against Hungarian hosts MVFC Berettyóújfalu through Tihomir Novak and went on to win 4-0. Nacional take on Shakhtar tomorrow while Beverwijk face Berettyóújfalu.






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