Serbia's Bojović leads Golden Boot race

Vidan Bojović's four-goal haul in Serbia's 9-8 Group D victory over Azerbaijan gives him the lead in the race for the adidas Golden Boot after the UEFA Futsal EURO 2012 group stage.

The 32-year-old, whose sole strike in five previous finals games had come with the consolation in Serbia's 5-1 last-eight defeat by Portugal in 2010, managed four on Friday night in Zagreb – and also scored an own goal. Although Bojović then failed to register in Sunday's 2-1 loss against Spain, which set up a quarter-final with Russia on Tuesday, he remains a goal clear in the standings.

Looking back at the Azerbaijan match, Bojović told UEFA.com: "I am still very emotional about that game, because it is not so easy to score four goals against the semi-finalists from the last European Championship. Of course four goals in a EURO is a big achievement, it was a like a dream and definitely my best game for the national team."

One of the shortest players in the tournament, at 1.60m, the Serbia vice-captain said: "It isn't an advantage or a disadvantage. You have tall players who are good like Cardinal, Arnaldo [Pereira] and [Florin] Matei, and you also have players who aren't so big. But that's the interesting thing about futsal – small players can beat big players. That's the difference with futsal and football compared to, say, basketball, where you must be tall – handball, volleyball too. I would not change anything about my stature."

Of the four players on three goals, Russia's Konstantin Maevski is currently in line for the Silver Boot after his hat-trick in the 5-0 Group C win against Turkey and assists in both that match and the 2-2 draw with Italy. Currently three players are sharing the Bronze Boot as they are level in all criteria – Valeriy Legchanov of Ukraine, Croatia's Dario Marinović and, the only one of the trio from an eliminated side, Azerbaijan forward Jadder Dantas.

Leaders (all have played two games)
1 Vidan Bojović (Serbia) 4 goals, 1 assist
2 Konstantin Maevski (Russia) 3 goals, 2 assists
3= Jadder Dantas* (Azerbaijan) 3 goals, 0 assists
3= Valeriy Legchanov (Ukraine) 3 goals, 0 assists
3= Dario Marinović (Croatia) 3 goals, 0 assists

*team eliminated

Full statistics

Criteria
1) Higher number of assists:
• Player delivering the intentional pass, cross, header or shot leading to a goal
• Player shooting and ball rebounding from woodwork, goalkeeper or defender and entering the goal
• Player passing, shooting or crossing and leading to an own goal
• Only one assist per goal can be awarded
• No assist for player winning a penalty or free-kick
2) Higher ratio of converted double (ten-metre) penalties
3) Higher ratio of converted (six-metre) penalties
4) Higher number of goals scored in fewer matches
5) Fair play record (red, yellow cards)

Past final tournament top scorers
2010: Saad Assis (Italy), Biro Jade (Azerbaijan), Javi Rodríguez (Spain), Joel Queirós (Portugal) 5
2007: Cirilo (Russia), Daniel (Spain), Predrag Rajić (Serbia) 5
2005: Nando Grana (Italy) 6
2003: Serhiy Koridze (Ukraine) 7
2001: Serhiy Koridze (Ukraine) 7
1999: Konstantin Eremenko (Russia) 11
1996: Konstantin Eremenko (Russia) 8