Tournament review

The final
Spain in
seventh
heaven
Miguelín (11) and Pola scored
two goals apiece in the final
Twenty years after winning
UEFA's first European futsal
tournament, Spain continue to
set the benchmark
Amid all the pageantry and sitting in a back row just below the main
TV cameras, UEFA’s technical observer Javier Lozano couldn’t help but
reminisce. The final in Belgrade marked the 20th anniversary of Spain’s
5-3 victory over Russia in the first European futsal tournament to be
organised by UEFA. On that day in 1996, Lozano won the first of his three
European titles as coach of Spain. Flicking through the photo album
of that pioneering event, with the referees in long trousers, a sparsely
populated press box and a modest crowd at the 4,000-capacity venue in
Cordoba, illustrates how far futsal has travelled in the last two decades,
morphing into the grandiose final between the same two countries at the
Arena of Belgrade.
Russia versus Spain could be regarded as futsal’s Clásico, with all
the rivalry and tensions that the label carries. Familiarity had bred
mutual respect between the two coaches, Sergei Skorovich and José
Venancio López. History was also a conditioning factor. Russia were aware
that four previous finals against Spain had yielded only one victory;
Spain were aware that their title defence in 2014 had been ended at the
semi-final stage by Skorovich’s team. A nervy start came as no surprise.
Russia’s game plan was to subject Spain to high pressing and
tight individual marking, with the aim of disturbing their trademark
combination play. Venancio countered this by using a 1-3-1 formation,
with the high-lying pivot setting out to stretch the Russian lines. Playing
long to the front man yielded no early dividends. Spain’s game was
uncharacteristically disjointed; passing lacked its usual precision and a
few cracks appeared – such as the lack of understanding between
Raúl Campos and his goalkeeper Paco Sedano, before the ball was
eventually scrambled away for a corner. Sedano’s outstanding
performance included a stunning right-foot save after 5:40, when Russia
came within an ace of breaking the deadlock from a corner. "If I had
to select a player of the tournament, then Sedano would be one of my
candidates," Lozano murmured.
Spain’s technical excellence allowed them to allay the early jitters and
settle into their usual high-tempo combination play. Russian nerves began
to fray, with the closeness of their individual marking drawing them into
concentration-threatening sideshows. Robinho, their playmaker, gestured
impatiently to team-mates when he found himself short of passing
options. A Spain breakthrough looked increasingly likely. But Skorovich,
who had extensively forewarned and fore-armed his players about
Spain’s proficiency at set pieces, was aghast at the manner of its arrival.
After 8:08, Bebe delivered a kick-in from the right and Alex, unmarked,
slammed the ball high into the Russia net.
The setback raised questions about the power to react of a Russia side
which, with Eder Lima suspended, had been deprived of its reference point
in attack. The advantage, although slim, opened the door for Spain to
exercise counterattacking options and the game settled into a pattern of
lengthy periods of ball possession by the Russians without finding routes
into the key scoring areas.
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