Russia and Italy collide again

All three previous winners of the UEFA European Futsal Championship are in the semi-finals – and two of them face off in the first of Friday's fixtures in Gondomar as Italy play Russia.

Old rivals
Italy, who lifted the trophy in 2003, have an equal record against the 1999 champions with five wins each in 13 meetings. That includes games at every one of the preceding European finals; latterly, Italy prevailed 1-0 to knock out Russia in the group stage en route to victory on home soil in 2003, before the Azzurri were eliminated 4-2 by the same team in the 2005 semi-finals.

In form
Azzurri coach Alessandro Nuccorini can count on eleven of the 12 players who tackled Russia two years ago, compared to the opposition's seven. Nuccorini led his charges to the Group A summit with a 0-0 draw against hosts Portugal, a 7-1 victory over Romania (a joint championship record) and a 4-0 defeat of the Czech Republic. However, since the countries' last meeting, Russia have acquired new stars in naturalised Brazilians Cirilo and Pelé Junior, and Nuccorini accepts that his side have a considerable hurdle to jump.

Dangerous duo
"This tournament has been a joy for us and we do not want it to stop," said Nuccorini, who could recall Anderson Pellegrini and Marcio Forte, rested against the Czechs. "We now play a very strong Russia team, even more powerful than the one we encountered in Ostrava two years ago. Compared to that squad, there are now two naturalised players, Pelé and Cirilo, who can make the difference."

Mixed form
Russia themselves have had mixed fortunes so far. They overcame a scare to beat Serbia 5-3 before cruising past Ukraine 4-1 to progress with a game to spare. Yet they then lost 4-1 to Spain on Wednesday to fall behind the holders in Group B – although coach Oleg Ivanov used the occasion to rest key players and has a full squad available against the Azzurri.

Organisation
Ivanov told uefa.com: "Italy are a well-organised team. They press well, they defend well. Also, they have leaders on the pitch in Edgar Bertoni and Adriano Foglia. The key to success could be our set-pieces, being effective in positional attacks. We will be using the zonal defence we normally use, and will be relying on counterattacks. Pressing is something we will use only occasionally."

Experiments
Having experimented tactically against Spain, Ivanov mused: "We tried out talented young players like Marat Azizov and Sergei Sergeev and let those who have been less involved play more. We rested Vladislav Shayakhmetov and Sergei Malyshev and Pelé also got a bit of a break." However, the loss meant that they face Italy rather than lower-ranked hosts Portugal. Ivanov is undaunted, saying: "The great Russian general Aleksandr Suvorov once said: 'In order to win the war, it's sometimes useful to lose a battle'."