Portugal aim to hit winning form

UEFA European Futsal Championship hosts Portugal began the tournament with the first 0-0 draw in the finals for eight years. But having been held by Italy, they are now keen on victory as they meet a Czech Republic side smarting from an 8-4 defeat by Romania.

Winning aim
Portugal always knew their opening Group A game would be tough as they were beaten convincingly by the Azzurri two years ago in Ostrava, but with a passionate home crowd behind them there was no repeat this time, and on Sunday they aim to take a big step towards the semi-finals. "We want to win the next two games," coach Orlando Duarte said. "It does not matter if we are first or second, we just want to go through. We have to win with our heads and not with our emotions. I also thank the fans who have supported us well. Until Friday we were fully focused on Italy. Now we have watched the Czech Republic and will completely focus on that game."

Hard work
Israel played an important role in Portugal shutting out the 2003 champions, and he added: "We have worked hard for the last two years and now we are profiting from that. Everybody is talking about Portugal winning the European Championship but our main goal remains the same: to qualify for the semi-finals."

Recovery
However, that is a tough objective for the Czech Republic after their Matchday 1 defeat by first-time finalists Romania. Three times Tomáš Neumann's side cancelled out deficits but they had no answer to four late Romanian goals and another loss to Portugal would end their hopes with one game to go. "It is difficult to understand what happened," Neumann said. "We will have to see the videotapes, but the goals were due to a certain fear during the game. What is important now is to recover psychologically and put the team together." His cause has not been helped by a knee injury to goalkeeper Libor Gerčák, forcing his replacement by the experienced Petr Krayzel, while David Filinger remains suspended for another two games.

Plans awry
Tomáš Sluka, who is taking time out from playing for Czech second division football team SFC Opava to represent his nation at futsal, is well aware of how difficult it will now be to achieve their dream of repeating their 2003 run to the semi-finals. "There were times we played well but than we made a lot of mistakes and they scored several times on the counterattack," he told uefa.com, adding that Romania were the opponents they believed they were most likely to defeat. "That's what we thought before the match but now we have to beat very strong teams like Portugal and Italy if we are to secure one of the two top places in the group."