Hard work pays off for Russia

Russia were at their magisterial best as the 2005 runners-up qualified for November's UEFA European Futsal Championship finals with a comfortable Group A triumph in Hungary.

Decisive triumph
Having beaten Lithuania 4-1 and Greece 8-0, Russia were being held late in the first half of the decider against the home nation. Requiring a victory, the 1999 champions made their class tell as Vladislav Shayakhmetev and the newly-naturalised Pelé gave them a two-goal half-time lead and a pair of Pavel Chistopolov strikes and a Marat Azizov clincher confirmed a decisive 5-0 triumph.

'Hard time'
"We came to Hungary in good condition," said Russia goalkeeper Roman Putintsev. "The tournament at first glance was extremely successful, but I would not call it easy by any means. All 13 players who came to Hungary were used and had to work hard in order to achieve a positive result. Maybe some people will say we did not have the strongest and the most accomplished opponents, yet from the first match against Lithuania we were given a hard time."

Pelé bow
The matches were Brazilian-born MFK Dinamo Moskva star Pelé's first competitive games for his adopted country. "I accepted an invitation to play for Russia, but initially, to be honest, those colours weren't really sparking too much enthusiasm for me," he admitted. "But then I saw the determination and responsiblity of my Russia colleagues and I realised it's impossible not to try to match that."

Toughest battles ahead
However, his Dinamo team-mate Pavel Kobzar conceded that the toughest battles are still ahead in the finals in Porto, despite the challenges from Hungary and Lithuania. "Of course, the rest of Europe has a long way to go to match Spain, Italy or Russia," he said. "In most of eastern Europe, futsal is a completely amateur sport. It means that national teams in such conditions face immense difficulties when facing strong opposition."