Amado relieved to hold off Araz

Interviú Madrid goalkeeper Luis Amado admitted the UEFA Futsal Cup holders were relieved to reach Sunday's final after the Spanish side were given a fright by Araz Naxçivan in Lisbon.

Having twice been pegged back by the first semi-finalists from Azerbaijan, the three-time champions eventually pulled away from their opponents, finishing 5-2 victors to set up a Pavilhão Atlántico decider with hosts SL Benfica. Speaking to UEFA.com after receiving his Man of the Match Award by Seat, Amado explained that Interviú might have underrated their opponents.

"We didn't expect such a difficult game to be honest," he said. "Obviously the opening games in these type of tournaments are generally tricky but we never anticipated such a physically demanding encounter nor did we think they'd be pushing us so close on the scoreboard."

Having beaten away a barrage of shots in the early stages of the encounter, Amado later dramatically clawed out Biro Jade's goalbound effort before claiming his side's fourth goal with a long-distance clearance similar to the one he scored for Spain against the Czech Republic in last January's UEFA European Futsal Championship semi-finals.

"Things like that don't happen by accident," the 33-year-old said. "I was practicing some things like that while trying to get used to the type of ball we're using here which is different to what we're used to. We worked a lot on certain things before the game and fortunately that helped me a lot."

However, Amado stated that there was much for his team-mates to improve upon ahead of Sunday's showpiece. "We need to tighten up at the back as we were a bit weak in defence tonight," he said. "Araz came to play in their style which affected us but in the second half we got better and we were able to produce the type of game we are used to playing in Spain."

Meanwhile, Araz coach Alesio – who must now prepare his side for a third-place match with Luparense C/5 – admitted to feeling frustrated that his side lost control of the game at a crucial moment. "We don't have the quantity of quality players you need in order to rotate and that was evident in the closing stages," he said. "The pivotal moment of the game was when Betão put them 3-2 ahead; we knew he was capable of that and yet we weren't switched on at that moment in order to prevent it happening."