Cup successes for semi-final foes

Kairat Almaty and Interviú Madrid were drawn against each other in the UEFA Futsal Cup semi-finals on Saturday – and signalled their intent the following day by winning their respective domestic cups.

Kairat triumph
Aiming for a fifth straight Kazakh double, league leaders Kairat staged the final stages of the cup in Amaty and beat Tulpar Karagandy 7-1 in the last four before seeing off Aktyubrentgen Aktobe 7-4 to retain the trophy, Rafael scoring twice in both games. Coach João Carlos Barbosa said: "I'm very pleased, of course, for the players and the fans who supported us throughout the tournament. But you can not dwell on this, you need to calm down and work on. There are in fact even more important matches."

Barbosa reunion
That includes the 24 April meeting with Interviú in Ekaterinburg, in which Kairat will attempt to win a UEFA Futsal Cup semi-final at the third attempt. Barbosa, familiar with the Spanish champions having joined Kairat from domestic rivals UD Guadalajara FS, added: "I know what style the team plays from my time in Spain, I faced that team. They are a very strong club. One of the best in Europe, if not the best. But, despite this, our team is going to give them a real battle."

Interviú delight
Interviú, themselves top of their domestic league, had to win three games in Granada to win the Spanish Cup for the tenth time. They began with a 4-2 quarter-final defeat of Lobelle de Santiago FS on Friday before a 4-0 Saturday victory against fellow two-time European champions Playas de Castellón FS set up a decider with holders ElPozo Murcia FS. Jordi Torras's early strike for the capital club was swiftly cancelled out by Saúl but two Schumacher goals made it 3-1 to Interviú at the break. Álvaro pulled one back before Betao restored the two-goal cushion, and although Wilde again reduced arrears, Daniel sealed a 5-3 victory in the last minute, though he hurt his knee and is out of Spain's UEFA European Futsal Championship qualifiers from 19-22 March.