Prudnikov proud of Ekaterinburg run

'Strong emotions'
It seemed to be all going wrong on Friday against Kairat Almaty in the semi-finals but five minutes into the second half Dmitri Prudnikov struck a powerful equaliser, a deserved personal reward for his hard work, and three late goals gave Ekaterinburg a 4-1 victory. "It is a very pleasant feeling to get to the final of the UEFA Futsal Cup from the first attempt," Prudnikov told uefa.com. "There were very strong emotions on Friday."

Big match
Ekaterinburg have never won the Russian league title and only entered this competition as MFK Dinamo Moskva won the UEFA Futsal Cup last season. Prudnikov, at 20 the youngest player in the Ekaterinburg squad, admitted that the club have already achieved much but wants even more. "Yes we have exceeded expectations already but we are in no way relaxed because there is another big match ahead of us," he said. "As for Friday's game, we started well and controlled the ball well in the first minutes, attacked and could have scored. Then something happened. Maybe we burned out a little. There was a very serious team-talk from our coach during the break and things got better, we started to play differently."

Murcia ability
Indeed, coach Sergei Skorovich expressed his frustration at part of his team's semi-final performance, but Prudnikov believes his approach is the right one. "We have a good coach," Prudnikov said. "He can be tough when it is needed but he can also joke." And now for Murcia, who on Friday beat a Dinamo side who are currently 21 points ahead of Ekaterinburg in the Russian Super League. "Murcia played just the way I expected," Prudnikov added. "A very good team packed with world and European champions."