Czechs cheered by comebacks

The late call-ups of Tomáš Sluka and Roman Mareš proved invaluable for the Czech Republic as the pair scored 12 of their team's 15 goals to help their country win UEFA European Futsal Championship qualifying Group E in Split.

Late call-ups
Mareš and his brother Michal came out of international retirement just before the qualifiers, having returned to the Czech Republic after a spell in Russia with MFK Dina Moskva. Indeed, Sluka was only given permission to play by his football team, second division SFC Opava, five days before the trip to Croatia.

Comeback win
With that trio on board, the Czech Republic beat Kazakhstan 6-4 and Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-2, yet trailed Croatia on goal difference going into Sunday's decider. Needing a win, they were held to 0-0 at half-time, David Filinger having received a red card on 14 minutes, which left them down to four men temporarily. Things got worse two minutes into the second period, when Patrik Drndič put Croatia ahead, before Lukáš Rešetár equalised six minutes later and then, with eight minutes remaining, Roman Mareš shot the Czechs in front in both the game and the group. The last-mentioned scored again in the 36th minute, then Sluka registered twice late on with Croatia having thrown everything into attack, for a 5-1 victory that booked a place in Porto and a third consecutive qualification for the 2005 hosts.

'Mental power'
Recently-appointed Czech Republic coach Tomáš Neumann said: "We survived the two-minute expulsion without conceding a goal and that was crucial. That gave us a real lift. When we were two goals up, our opponents tried to level the scores without a goalkeeper and we were able to punish them from counters." Experienced Czech player Martin Dlouhý added: "It was the most difficult qualification I have played in. Futsal in Europe is getting more and more equal."