Golden goals overshadow Charleroi

Finnish champions Golden Futsal Team overshadowed former UEFA Futsal Cup winners Action 21 Charleroi as both picked up victories in their opening UEFA Futsal Cup Main round Group 3 games.

Salmi treble
GFT, who came through the Preliminary round, opened the mini-tournament in Charleroi with a 9-3 defeat of seasoned Swedish campaigners Skövde AIK. Risto Salmi scored a hat-trick, including two in the last eight minutes as the Espoo side increased their lead from 5-3.

Canaris clinchers
Charleroi, European champions in 2004/05 and one of the contenders in the inaugural four-team finals two years later, beat Athina' 90 of Athens 4-2. Lúcio Rosa and Jonathan Fosse made it 2-0 before Oratios Iliadis and Ilias Bousmpouras levelled matters either side of the break, but two Sebastiano Canaris goals in the space of 59 seconds decided the game. On Thursday GFT and Charleroi go head to head while Group 2 concludes in the Czech Republic with all four sides still able mathematically to go through or be knocked out and the other four mini-tournaments begin. The top two in each group progress to the Elite round.