Hungary hold the advantage

Hungary lead Russia by a single goal ahead of their UEFA European Futsal Championship qualifying round Group F decider on Friday after both secured their second win of the mini-tournament in Dabas.

Tóth celebrates century
Group hosts Hungary, who reached the finals for the first time two years ago, began with a 10-2 defeat of Greece and today took on Lithuania, beaten 4-1 by 2005 runners-up Russia. It took eight minutes for Hungary to make a breakthrough, Zsolt Gyurcsány giving them the lead, but it was only with seven minutes left that they doubled the advantage as Szabolcs Tóth celebrated his 100th cap with a goal. One minute from the end János Madarász ensured a 3-0 win, his strike to prove extremely valuable later on.

Hungary ahead
That was because Russia then knew they needed a nine-goal margin of victory against Greece to ensure they would go into first place - but fell one short. Konstantin Maevski and Konstantin Douchkevitch made it 2-0 within four minutes but Sergei Malyshev was the only other scorer before the break. Konstantin Agapov, Sergey Sergeev, Maevski and Marat Azizov increased the lead to sevens with nine minutes to go, and Pavel Kobzar claimed the eighth seven minutes later, but it finished 8-0, so Hungary are ahead of Russia on goals scored. A draw on Friday would take the home team into the finals in Porto, while Russia must win to avoid a first non-qualification at European level.