The Russian national team confidentally beat Azerbaidjan with the score 6 to 2 and passed to the semi-final of European championship of 2016.

In the first half our team scored two goals, which hadn’t happened before in the tournament. On the 6^th minute Sergei Abramov sent a beautiful ball into the far corner after he received a pass from the center. But we didn’t manage to keep the leadership for a long time. Azerbaijan, playing from the center, created several dangerous moments in a row, especially after playing some standards. One of them turned into a goal: Augusto pushed the ball into the net at a close distance after he received a pass from the throw-in. The opponent was not wrong focusing on counter-attacks since the team of Tino Perez had more well-placed shots in the first half than our team and because of the careful tactics they didn’t seem less dangerous than the Russian team.

On the 14th minute our team scored again: Shayahmetov and Sergeev played a good corner-kick: the first sent the ball to the center, where Romulo finalized with his head. Once again, the team from Azerbaijan started to attack furiously: Gustavo did his best and in the moment when Augusto played alone against the attacking play, the last one missed accuracy.

The second half began calmly, but then the foul by Borisov at the corner of the goal on the 25^th minute defined the game. Our team played accurately the free kick and Robinho sent the ball into the far corner. Azerbaijan immediately added an extra man but the first attack didn’t succeed: Gustavo threw forward at Abramov, who won the duel in the air with the defenders and hit an empty net – 4-1.

However, it was clear that the game wasn’t going to end up so easy. Azerbaijan continued to play with an extra man, and at first Augusto hit the post but then from almost the same position scored a goal. The opponent laid a very long and unpleasant siege to our goal. They tried to act aggressively without passing a lot, that’s why the atmosphere next to our goal remained tense.

On the 38^th minute Lima got the ball on the right wing and instead of the expected pass, he blocked Farzaliyev and shot right into the near corner – 5 to 2. This ball left no questions about the winner of the match and a little bit later Lima again improved his personal statistics by striking the near corner of the empty net.

Press-service of the futsal union of Russia.