Spain confirm title defence
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Article summary
Spain will bid for a third straight FIFA Futsal World Cup victory in Brazil this autumn after completing a comfortable 13-1 aggregate play-off win against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Article top media content
Article body
Comfortable win
A 9-1 home first-leg win had made the return in Visoko something of a formality and Spain ensured they qualified in style as they struck four goals without reply. Kike found the target on five minutes and Ortiz, Marcelo and Rafa Muñoz took the aggregate score to 13-1 after the interval for the world and European champions.
European berths
Five other European sides will be in the finals draw in Brasilia on 6 July for the tournament from 30 September to 19 October. On Sunday, Russia hold a 5-1 lead ahead of their home leg against Belarus while on Tuesday Ukraine travel to Hungary 3-1 up, Romania welcome the Czech Republic with the score at 1-1 and Slovenia visit Portugal trailing 6-1. The play-offs are completed the following day in Ploce where Croatia hope to overturn a 6-3 deficit against 2004 World Cup runners-up Italy.