Belarus beat odds to hold Portugal

Portugal narrowly avoided being the victims of one of the biggest shocks in the history of the sport as Belarus recovered from their opening 9-1 defeat by Spain to salvage a draw in the last second of a fantastic UEFA European Futsal Championship Group D encounter.

Comebacks
Despite the injury absence of the inspirational Ricardinho, Portugal looked set for a comfortable win as they strolled into a two-goal lead only to find themselves 4-2 down with eight minutes left. However, they kept their heads to move ahead and although Aleksei Popov completed his hat-trick in the last second, Belarus will only go into the quarter-finals if Spain – now through – beat Portugal more by better than 9-1 on Sunday.

Portugal ahead
Having had to wait until three teams had finished their group games before commencing their campaign, 2007 semi-finalists Portugal wasted no time tearing into Belarus goalkeeper Artur Navoichik. Not long after a shot almost slipped under the No1's body from Cardinal, the same player opened the scoring with a strong effort after being set up by Israel.

Further goals
Cardinal nearly struck again after rounding Navoichik but hit the post from a tight angle but Joel Queirós doubled the lead when Gonçalo Alves intercepted the ball and sent the Portugal captain clear to beat the goalkeeper. Belarus did not let their heads drop and late in the half Popov advanced down the left touchline and centred for Aleksandr Chernik to finish at the far post.

Belarus ahead
Vladimir Levus came mighty close to equalising at the start of the second half, while at the other end Popov defended superbly to twice deny Evandro. He was rewarded when he received the ball inside the Portugal half, advanced and confidently beat João Benedito. The Portugal goalkeeper did deny Aleksandr Savintsev from close range but it was Popov again who struck, turning in a cross from Chernik. Two minutes later Sergei Kuznetsov broke and fed Aleksandr Gayduk to make it 4-2 with another confident finish.

Thrilling finish
Almost immediately there was a lifeline for Portugal as Chernik pulled down Cardinal in the box and Joel smashed in the penalty. Only four minutes remained when Cardinal turned and shot past Navoichik and with Belarus using a flying goalkeeper, Arnaldo broke from deep to put Portugal ahead. That was not the end of it, though, as Portugal committed their sixth foul of the half in the last second and Popov's double penalty gave Belarus a point and kept them in the tournament for now.