Belarus submerged by superb Spain
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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Spain 9-1 Belarus
Debutants Belarus cancelled out Spain's early opener but were powerless to deny the dominant holders a record finals victory.
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Spain got their bid for a third straight UEFA European Futsal Championship title off to a convincing start against finals debutants Belarus.
Second-half haul
Although Juanra's early goal was cancelled out by Vladimir Levus, Kike immediately made it 2-1 and in the second half Spain scored seven times, including a Javi Rodríguez hat-trick. They ended with a record margin of victory in any finals match, and Belarus must avoid defeat by Portugal on Friday to stay in the Group D running.
Depleted Belarus
The pre-tournament loss of Vadim Lushkovski, Ilya Gurin, Eduard Bobrov and Vladimir Zhdanovich had increased the already long odds against Belarus and the holders stroked the ball about at will from the off. On three minutes Juanra, who like Álvaro, Daniel, Jordi Torrás and Kike had been an injury doubt, provided a strong finish after being teed up by Borja.
Brief parity
Kike hit the post but then, out of the blue, Belarus equalised. A corner was played back to Aleksandr Chernik, who laid off for Levus to smash in. Parity lasted less than a minute as, after Daniel had already hit the crossbar, Kike found the target from outside the box. Belarus came more into the game, though nearly fell further behind when Lin muscled his way through the Belarus defence and hit the post.
Pressure tells
Navoichik was in action again early in the second half, taking two attempts to stop Javi Rodríguez's shot. He also tipped over Lin's chip, with Spain maintaining dominance in possession. Seven minutes into the half Navoichik was beaten, unfortunate to see Torrás's low strike roll under his body. Javi Rodríguez then got in on the act, scoring twice in a minute – first after a nice combination with Álvaro, then after cutting in from the left – and promptly rolled the ball to Ortiz to make it 6-1.
Record broken
Juanra finished off a fine long-range one-two with Torrás for the next goal and the new mark was set after Lin struck and Javi Rodríguez completed his hat-trick. Only an unlikely series of results can prevent Spain's passage to the quarter-finals after Sunday's encounter with Portugal.