Strong rivals stand in Murcia's way

Four established UEFA Futsal Cup forces will be in Italy for Elite round Group 1 from Thursday until Sunday. ElPozo Murcia FS have twice reached the four-team finals but the Spanish side face a real threat from their last opponents, hosts Luparense Calcio A5. Former winners Action 21 Charleroi have a young team but a great European tradition and Iberia 2003 Tbilisi, competition ever-presents, will look to upset the odds.

Luparense Calcio A5
Having won the last three Scudettos, Luparense are aiming to make the most of home advantage at the Zoppas Arena in Conegliano and become the first Italian team to reach the UEFA Futsal Cup finals. Unbeaten at the top of Serie A1, they are being coached this season by Federico Montaldo Vidal. Jairo Manoel scored eight goals in their Main round Group 1-clinching 10-0 defeat of Hungarian hosts MVFC Berettyóújfalu. The coach told uefa.com: "An Italian team has never qualified for the finals; this is a chance for us to make history. To speak about ElPozo Murcia means to speak about one of the best futsal teams in the world. They have the same basis of players every year and they play from memory. But if we want to reach the finals, we must compete with a side of this quality."

Main round: SC Tornado Chisinau 10-0, FC Time Lviv 3-3, MVFC Berettyóújfalu 10-0 (Group 1 winners)

Key players: Jairo Manoel, Anderson Pellegrini, Humberto Honorio

ElPozo Murcia FS
Having been beaten on penalties in the 2008 UEFA Futsal Cup final and in the last second as hosts in the semis the year before, Murcia are back in Europe as Spanish champions and aiming to win their first UEFA Futsal Cup. Duda's side are two points behind Interviú Madrid this season after a 3-3 home draw against their arch-rivals on Saturday, a game Murcia led 3-0 after eleven minutes, and the coach knows it is tricky to balance a tough domestic campaign with a European bid. "I don't see winning the trophy as some kind of obsession but the fact is that the management team must keep this Elite Round in mind," he said. "We will compete in Europe with three games in just four days and we can't afford to slip up because the Futsal Cup is one of our objectives this season."

Main round: bye

Key players: Kike, Álvaro, Vinicius Elías

Action 21 Charleroi
Charleroi, runners-up in 2002 and 2003 and winners in 2005, have been building a new young team but that does not mean that they are not aiming to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2007. Coach Pedro Medina, whose side lie sixth in Belgium, told uefa.com: "I hope that we'll have a good tournament and it will help the team to acquire more experience because they are young. We've had a lot of changes in the team this year and I've a team in formation, so our goal is to play good games and to gain experience, but we always play to win."

Main round: Athina '90 Athens 4-2, Golden Futsal Team 3-0, Skövde AIK 10-1 (Group 3 winners)

Key players: Sebastiano Canaris, Liliu, Lúcio Rosa, Valentin Dujacquier

Iberia 2003 Tbilisi
Iberia are the only team to have entered every edition of this competition but the perennial Georgian champions made it through a round for the first time this season. They warmed up for the trip to Italy with a 4-3 win against Azerbaijan's Ekol Baku but since the Main round, when they were under the command of president Vakhtang Tsereteli, Brazilian Adriano Roberto Salomão has been appointed coach. "We have already achieved our minimum goal," player Aleksandr Dzabiradze said. "It'll be extremely tough to reach the semi-finals because of the strong opposition including 2005 UEFA Futsal cup winners Action 21 Charleroi, but we'll try and see."

Main round: Erebuni Yerevan 5-0, FC Marlène 2-0, FC CIP Deva 3-5 (Group 6 runners-up)

Key players: Everson Bohm (goalkeeper), George Altunashvili, Duda