Joel bemoans Portugal 'failure'

Portugal did better than they had ever done before by reaching the UEFA European Futsal Championship semi-finals – but one of their key players, Joel Queirós, is far from happy with their fourth-placed finish.

'Failure'
The hosts led Spain 2-0 in the semi-finals only to be pegged back and lose on penalties and on Sunday they were pipped to bronze 3-2 by Russia, after scoring first, letting in two goals within 30 seconds, equalising and swiftly conceding again. When asked what he thought of their campaign, Joel told uefa.com: "I have to say it was a failure. We should have been in the final, especially after showing for 35 minutes against Spain just how strong we are. However everything crumbled in just five minutes and we could only manage to finish fourth."

Focus
FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifying begins in a few months time, and the 25-year-old MRA Navarra FS man believes Portugal need to regroup quickly. "It is a disappointment to be winning and then in just one or two minutes allow our opponents to come back and steal the game," Joel said. "We will have to work very hard on our mentality. Now we must focus our attention on the next World Cup and approach that competition in the same way we did here but without making the same mistakes which ultimately cost us a medal."

*There was one consolation for Portugal, as they won the Fair Play prize, finishing ahead of Russia and Italy.