Lozano wants to spark Barcelona party
Saturday, April 28, 2012
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FC Barcelona hope to add a futsal European title to the ones they have won in many other sports, and forward Sergio Lozano predicts Sunday's final will be a "party".
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FC Barcelona have been European champions at football, basketball, handball, ice hockey and roller hockey, and on Sunday hope to add futsal to that roll of honour.
In their first UEFA Futsal Cup campaign they have made it to the final, which they will stage in front of as partisan crowd in Lleida against MFK Dinamo Moskva. While as a club Barcelona's European experience pales against Dinamo, they had a set of players with plenty of international honours between them, not least forward Sergio Lozano, the man of the match in the 5-1 semi-final defeat of Sporting Clube de Portugal as part of a spectacular first season with the Blaugrana.
Lozano was the two-goal hero of Spain's dramatic 3-1 extra-time UEFA Futsal EURO 2012 final defeat of Russia a couple of months ago in Zagreb, the beaten team containing several Dinamo players. However, he is not among the Barcelona players to have won the UEFA Futsal Cup with previous clubs.
Asked whether his feats in Croatia have given him any words of wisdom to pass on to his team-mates, Lozano told UEFA.com: "No, I need advice from those with experience in these types of games. The truth is that the final of the European Futsal Championship was very nice, we went through a lot but we had a very good ending. On Sunday I hope we can repeat that and celebrate."
Of course this time Lozano and his team-mates will have home advantage. "If the atmosphere in the semi-finals was amazing, in the final I hope for the same or even better," he said. "I'm sure everything will be fantastic and it will be a party. We hope to contribute to it. We always work for the fans' enjoyment and we'll work to win the UEFA Futsal Cup. It is clear that without them everything will be more difficult."
Another star of the semi-final was goalkeeper Paco Sedano, who saved a penalty having himself hit the post with a long clearance a few minutes earlier. He struck a confident note, saying: "We believe we can win it. The goal was to reach the final and we have already achieved it.
"Dinamo are a great team, full of stars. We have been impressive but on Sunday we have to be even better. It will be a great match, maybe one of the best that could be seen in Europe since Dinamo would certainly be fighting to win the league here in Spain."
