Hosts and Russia seek consolation

With five minutes to go in their UEFA European Futsal Championship semi-final against holders Spain, Portugal looked like delighting the home fans as they led 2-0. Two Spanish goals, however, forced a shoot-out and the hosts lost 4-3 so their Sunday fixture is instead with Russia for third place.

Disappointment
Russia themselves were hoping to reach a second straight final but fell behind early against Italy and were shut out by the Azzurri defence, despite Cirilo hitting the underside of the crossbar, and eventually were defeated 2-0. "Our mistakes decided the outcome of this game," Russia coach Oleg Ivanov rued, but the 1999 champions never seemed to hit top form, edging their first game against underdogs Serbia 5-3 after seeing a two-goal lead slip, and following a 4-1 defeat of neighbours Ukraine with a similar loss against Spain.

Cirilo bow
There were high spots, notably Cirilo's spectacular hat-trick against Serbia on his competitive debut for his new nation, and the all-round play of Vladislav Shayakhmetov. But Ukraine, Spain and especially Italy were able to frustrate Cirilo and in the semi-finals they came up against an Azzurri side taking futsal defending to a new level of sophistication.

First semi-final
Portugal will be disappointed, but also proud of a magnificent achievement against Spain, who they have never beaten competitively. Indeed, it was Portugal's first semi-final in this tournament, and they now have in their ranks one of the game's brightest talent, 22-year-old fans' favourite Ricardinho.

'Special player'
The SL Benfica man, who is tipped for a move to one of Europe's top clubs, scored with a stunning acrobatic bicycle kick last night to put Portugal 2-0 up, "a special goal from a special player" according to Spain coach José Venancio. But that did not take away Ricardinho's frustration at the result.

Bad luck
"We had victory in our hands but let it slip away," he told uefa.com. "Once again we were betrayed by our lack of concentration. Before the match we had talked about the possibility of Spain attacking with five players but we just couldn't defend our advantage. We were unlucky but we have to congratulate Spain. Nevertheless I think we deserved a bit more from this tournament."

Final heave
Still, Ricardinho has vowed that they will give their fans something else to cheer when they take on Russia for bronze. "We want to finish in the best possible way and that's what we will try to do on Sunday," he said. "We want to bow out with a win."