UEFA Futsal Cup: ZC Excess earn a point in 5-5 draw

Romanian international Emil Raducu scored four goals as ZC Excess Futsal earned a point in a 5-5 draw with FS Ilves Tampere in the final match from the UEFA Futsal Cup mini-tournament which was held at the Cottonera Sports Complex over the past four days.

ZC Excess therefore ended their commitments in third place. Finnish champions Ilves Tampere reached the main round after winning the group with seven points, followed by Danish side BGA Futsal on six, Excess on four and KF Tirana without any points.

Raducu put ZC Excess ahead on the 3rd minute. Antti Teittinen levellled matters on the 11th and goals by Jani Nyblom on the 19th and Timur Inapshba on the 21st gave Ilves a 3-1 lead.

Clint Cope pulled one back on 25 minutes and Emil Raducu converted a penalty on 28 minutes to equalise. Jaakko Laitinen made it 4-3 for Ilves on 29 minutes and Juha Pekka Torvinen increased the lead on the 34th minute. However another two goals by Emil Raducu on 37 and 38 minutes enabled the local Futsal champions to earn a point from the game.

ILVES Tuomas Kalltoinen, Matti Anttonen, Antti Teittinen, Juha-Pekka Torvinen, Timurnapshba, Juho Laine, Teemu Alatalo, Tero Nieminen, Jaakko Laitinen, Markus Sairiala, Jani Nyblom, Joni Pakola.
EXCESS Brian Baldacchino, Emil Raducu, Glenn Bonello, Carlos Scicluna, Nicola Del Re, Jonathan Sammut, Steve Gambin, Florin Manea, Fabiano Bassi, James Ciangura, Clint Cope.
First Referee: Alberto Maestroni (ITA)
Second Referee: Balazs Farkas (HUN)
Third Official: Robert Rogers (IRL)
Timekeeper: Adrian Caruana (MLT)

Meanwhile in another match, BGA Futsal defeated KF Tirana 5-4. Martin Jepsen (12′), Kevin Jorgensen (15′) and Tayfun Cevik (17′) gave BGA a three-goal lead by the end of the first half and Flemming Damstoft Winther added another on 23 minutes to make it 4-0. KF Tirana hit back with goals by Arjan Nikolli on 27 minutes, a penalty by Floriana Manastirliu on the 30th and another goal by Arjan Hysa on the 32nd. Kevin Jorgensen made it 5-3 for BGA before Rigers Sina scored a fourth goal for the Albanian side in the final minute.