Belarus vow to give Portugal a game

By the time Portugal open their UEFA European Futsal Championship on Friday night against Belarus, three other sides will have ended their group campaigns, but Orlando Duarte's side know a win in their belated finals bow would take them through.

Belarus reverse
In the first Group D game on Wednesday, Belarus succumbed to a competition record 9-1 defeat by holders Spain, meaning another loss would end their debut finals campaign, and take both Portugal and the defending champions through to the quarter-finals whatever happens in their Iberian derby on Sunday. Portugal were hosts last time round in 2007 and reached the semi-finals, losing only on penalties to Spain, but their hopes in Hungary have been hit by injury to the key man from their run in Porto, Ricardinho.

Duarte puzzle
"We are not a bit worried about scoring many goals and winning by a big margin," Duarte said. "We just want to win. If that happens than we can think about fighting for first place with Spain. We have now watched seven Belarus games, including the two last month in Belgium. Having that in mind I can safely say that the team which lost 9-1 against Spain is not the same we saw play before the finals. They were miles away. They did face the reigning champions and maybe that was reflected in their performance. But I can tell you this: if they play against us like they did against Spain then I can't see us losing the game. "

Injuries
Belarus held Spain to 2-1 until the 27th minute, before the finals debutants succumbed to a typically high-tempo display from the holders. They were not helped by the loss for the finals of Vadim Lushkovski, Ilya Gurin, Eduard Bobrov and Vladimir Zhdanovich, and coach Valeri Dosko said: "We felt the lack of injured players, with international experience, and they would have helped us, especially in defence. However, I can say thanks to the lads for their game in the first half, our opponents just were better."

Task
Knowing only an upset win would keep their realistic hopes alive, Dosko added: "We will go above and beyond the call of duty to recover for the Portugal game. This will be very difficult because that team are also very strong. They will play attacking futsal, they saw our weaknesses, but we will make several changes and will try to give them a battle."