Portugal up to speed for Azerbaijan task

Azerbaijan first raised eyebrows when they held Portugal 3-3 in their opening UEFA European Futsal Championship qualifier last March in Viana Castelo. Now the pair are matched again in this evening's semi-finals in Debrecen with one to reach the decider for the first time.

Hitting form
In fact, Portugal, who were fourth on home soil in 2007, needed a last-minute Joel Queirós equaliser to draw with Azerbaijan, who were to qualify for the first time. Once in Hungary, Azerbaijan strolled through the group stage with two wins and on Monday ousted twice runners-up Ukraine on penalties. Meanwhile Portugal drew 5-5 with Belarus and lost 6-1 to Spain in Group D, scraping through on goal difference, but hit form in the quarter-finals by defeating Serbia 5-1.

Final aim
"The first two matches were warm-up games," Portugal coach Orlando Duarte said. "We were a little bit lucky in the first stages, now it is down to how well we can perform. We have not booked our flight home until 31 January and we want to go home having reached the final."

Azeri 'class'
Duarte, who used Bebé in goal against Serbia rather than the experienced João Benedito "from a psychological point of view", has naturally been impressed by Azerbaijan but hopes to target their charismatic pivot. "Before we met them in qualifying, no one knew a thing about this team but they have proved their class," Duarte said. "Serjão is obviously a great player with a lot of power but we have to take advantage of his lack of mobility and get it right."

Alves doubt
Having only named a squad of 12 rather than 14 players, Azerbaijan coach Alesio has tended to stick to a small core of that dozen on the pitch in their three games over in Budapest. One of those, Alves, is a doubt against Portugal but Rizvan Farzaliyev is confident some of his lesser-used colleagues are capable of stepping up. "Rajab Farajzadeh, Namig Mammadkarimov and Sergey Chuykov are all ready to play but this is a coaching decision when to play who," Farzaliyev said. "Maybe Mammadkarimov will come out and have a great match in the final – this is totally possible."

Higher goals
Farzaliyev added that their expectations have changed for Azerbaijan's first campaign in any UEFA national-team final tournament. "We had a goal to get into the knockouts, now I think we have a chance to make the final," he said. "We know how the Portuguese play and what they can do. We played Portugal before and they're a good team. Anything can happen."