Courtesy: UEFA.com


Relief for successful coaches

Friday 12 September 2008

by João Rocha from Chrudim

FK Era-Pack Chrudim and Hapoel Ironi Rishon Lezion were favourites to progress from UEFA Futsal Cup Main round Group 5 having made it through to last year's Elite round, but their coaches were still relieved at their progress in the Czech Republic.

Duo through
Hosts Chrudim and Hapoel led the pool by a point from Iberia 2003 Tbilisi ahead of Thursday's deciding matches, so each knew a draw would take them into November's third stage. Ironi Rishon were given a tough game by eliminated FK Nautara Kaunas, who equalised at the end of both halves in a 2-2 draw. Chrudim, though, continued the form they had showed in Tuesday's 6-1 defeat of Kaunas as they overcame Iberia 6-3 to top the pool. Both they and Hapoel will be in next Friday's Elite round draw.

Collective effort
Chrudim coach Ota Stejskal said: "We couldn't score freely before this match despite having a lot of chances, but we hoped we would improve. This match was quite good and I'm satisfied we won it. I can thank all of our players for their performances in the Main round because it was a collective effort. Many players who started on the bench played as well as the starters and we are really satisfied with the performance of all the players."

Draw enough
Hapoel's Gil Landau reflected on his side's 2-2 draw: "Nautara Kaunas had nothing to lose. We tried not to be so passive after our second goal but we were under pressure from Nautara and conceded. My opinion is that the second goal was a misunderstanding by the defence, but we are really glad for the draw and that we will be in the Elite round."

Pressure
Iberia, uniquely, have played in every UEFA Futsal Cup since the inaugural 2001/02 edition, though they have always fallen in the first round they have played. However, they did show promise by beating Kanuas 7-3 to lead the group after the opening day and were 2-1 up on Hapoel with nine minutes to go in their second Group 5 match before the Israeli side scored twice through Adam Cohen to win the game. However, Chrudim were to prove too strong and Iberia coach Aleksandr Sarkisian said: "We knew Chrudim are a really strong team and we expected to be under pressure as they had so many fans at their home stadium."

Kaunas consolation
Kaunas were making only their second European appearance, having lost three times in 2005/06 including their last match 5-4 against Iberia. This time round they proved their worth with three Preliminary round wins, but the opening loss to Iberia at this stage left them with too much ground to make up, though with their hopes of progress gone they put on a fine valedictory display against Hapoel. Coach Gerardas Pasažauskas said: "Our players were free from pressure because we had nothing to lose. I think we played the best game here in Chrudim and we could have finished above last place but we didn't play our true game in the previous matches."





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