Popov feat still leaves bitter taste

If you had said to Belarus player Aleksei Popov before the UEFA European Futsal Championship that he would score a hat-trick in a 5-5 draw with Portugal, he probably would have been delighted. However, after his treble – completed in the final second – did indeed secure a Group D point on Friday night, his feelings were decidedly mixed.

Drama
Portugal were swiftly two up against a Belarus side beaten 9-1 by Spain in the group opener. Then Belarus surged back to lead 4-2 midway through the second half, only to immediately concede a penalty. By the 39th minute Portugal were leading, and although Popov converted a last-gasp double penalty to complete his treble, the finals debutants will only go through if Orlando Duarte's side lose the last group game by more than 9-1 to Spain on Sunday.

Mixed feelings
Popov told uefa.com: "On the one hand this is a very good result against such strong opponents, but appetite comes with eating. When the score went to 4-2 we were thinking only about a win. But we didn't succeed. However, nobody can say that we did not fight tonight."

Coach reflects
Belarus coach Valeri Dosko added: "We knew that Portugal would start very fast and that's why we allowed them to control things for the first ten to 12 minutes. Unfortunately, we made two mistakes and conceded two goals. However, we were able to score right before the break. We made several changes and started to play better. The players were confident and scored three goals. After that we conceded the penalty and in this situation it is much more difficult to defend than when you are two up."

'No excuses'
While Duarte's side may be almost through, and did well to recover when things looked bleak, the Portugal coach was not pleased. "There are no excuses for a team like us to go two goals up then concede four goals in a row on the counterattack," he said. "We weren't secure when we attacked. We keep thinking we can do something special in this tournament but no team that has a real hope of that can concede four goals like we did tonight."

Cardinal's relief
Cardinal, who opened the scoring, was also the man that won the penalty that turned the tide in Portugal's favour and then made it 4-4 with three minutes left and his relief was palpable. "I was on the pitch when Belarus scored their fourth goal and I can tell you I had lots of things going through my mind," he said. "The fear of being eliminated was there but also the presence of mind to fight back. Thank God we did just that and are in a very good position to advance."