Turkey among opening triumphs

Turkey have won a futsal match for the first time with a dramatic opening-day victory in the 2007 UEFA European Futsal Championship as a dozen teams got the three preliminary round groups under way.

Opening honour
Ömer Kaner's men had the honour of taking part in the first of the 76 games that will be played overall in this year's edition of the prestigious national-team competition, the biggest yet with 36 teams taking part in the hope of ultimately reaching the eight-team finals in Porto this November. Turkey were 6-3 winners against Albania, who lost their first EURO contest having been eliminated in the previous edition despite a victory and draw.

Cihan hat-trick
Yener Kilic put Turkey in front in the eleventh minute only for Albania to take a 3-1 lead through Gentian Begaj, Endrit Samarxhi and Artan Gopekaj. However, they were to be stunned by a fightback that saw Murat Düzgün reduce the arrears before Cihan Özkan scored a hat-trick and Aziz Saglam added another to seal an historic triumph. Turkey were even able to cope with losing Abdullah Icel to a red card.

Finnish favour
The match was one of two played in Group A, with mini-tournament hosts Finland following that thriller up by delighting the home crowd in Vantaa with a 5-3 victory against Armenia. Meanwhile, in Group B, Latvia were 2-0 winners against Bulgaria with an early goal from Mihails Lisjakovs and late Antons Bakanins effort before the section hosts Romania brushed England aside 9-2 with a Iacob Gabriel Molomfalean hat-trick in Deva indicating that they could well match the achievement of last time round when they reached the main qualifying stage.

Kazakhstan comeback
Finally, in Group C, Kazakhstan - in their first fixture since January 2004 - underlined the country's growing stature in European futsal by defeating Georgia 4-1.Aleksandr Dzabiradze gave Georgia a third minute lead but Kazakhstan's attacking impetus paid off before half-time when Taras Shpichka equalised. Stanislav Kosin and Yuriy Butrin put Kazakhstan ahead midway through the second half before Kozin struck again late on.

Malta downed
There was disappointment for Malta, staging the mini-tournament in Paola, as on their international futsal debut they went down 7-1 to fellow island nation Cyprus. Igor Dassaev, Costas Poliviou and Manolis Manoli put Cyprus 3-0 up at the break before Manoli and Poliviou each scored once more. Two goals in a minute from Constantinos Christodoulou extended the advantage before a consolation from Malta's outstanding player, John Cutajar. For all there is still hope of progression as, with matches left to come on Friday and Sunday, they still have every chance of taking one of the five main qualifying round places. The three group winners and two best runners-up will all go through.