Obadă leads goal spree on opening night

Debutants KMF Tango Sarajevo hit ten goals in Wales while Lexmax Chisinau's Cristian Obadă managed four of his own and Víkingur Ólafsvík and FC Anzhi Tallinn produced a 15-goal thriller on an exciting opening night of action in the UEFA Futsal Cup preliminary round.

The group winners all progress to the main round from 1 to 6 October, for which the draw is already made. All five other groups begin tomorrow and run until Saturday.

Group A
Hosts FK Nautara Kaunas' hopes of reaching the main round for first time since 2009/10 took a serious dent with a 4-0 defeat by Lexmax Chisinau. Cristian Obadă was the match's outstanding performer, scoring all four goals for the Moldovan visitors in the second half.

Nautara captain Arūnas Šteinas hit the post in the goalless opening period but Obadă then took charge, opening the scoring two minutes after the restart and adding another three goals in the final three minutes. His second and third strikes came within a 10-second interval in the 38th minute after the hosts had started playing with a flying goalkeeper and he added a fourth to cap a spectacular move after the sending-off of Šteinas for a second bookable offence.

On Wednesday Lexmax, participating in the competition for the second time, can secure top spot in the group if they beat one of last year's preliminary round winners, Sporting Clube de Paris. The French club will then play Nautara on Thursday to conclude the group.

Group D
Staging Wales's first UEFA futsal mini-tournament at Cardiff House of Sport, Wrexham Futsal Club had a difficult debut against fellow newcomers KMF Tango Sarajevo as they fell to a 10-0 defeat.

The visitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, inclding several players likely to be involved in the UEFA Futsal EURO 2014 play-off against the Netherlands next month, scored twice inside three minutes through Semir Gušo and by half-time had built a stunning 9-0 lead. Ognjen Erić (2), Dražen Novoselac (2) and Anel Radmilović all found the net with the home side's Paul Madison and Thomas Allen adding own goals. Wrexham only conceded one more goal after the break, Novoselac completing his hat-trick in a man of the match performance for Mirko Marvan's team in the 22nd minute. 

Sarajevo will seek a second victory on Wednesday to progress against ASA Ben Gurion while Wrexham will meet the Israeli side the following evening looking to restore a little pride.

Group H
Víkingur Ólafsvík, staging the group in Iceland, enjoyed an unforgettable introduction to the UEFA Futsal Cup, winning a 15-goal thriller against FC Anzhi Tallinn. The Estonian visitors scored after just 20 seconds through Oļegs Matvejevs and raced into a 4-1 lead inside 12 minutes as Pāvels Jermilins, Dmitri Kirilov and Rafael Kušnir all added to their tally.

Víkingur showed their mettle, though, by battling back to 4-4 by half-time with the help of two Eythór Helgi Birgisson penalties. Antonio Mossi scored the fourth Víkingur goal 44 seconds before the break and he went on to complete a hat-trick in a second half of twists and turns. Anzhi led 5-4 but Víkingur turned the game around at 6-5 and after Vladislav Tšurilkin’s missed penalty for the Estonian side, Mossi's hat-trick strike put the Icelandic hosts on course for victory at 7-5. Eldar Masić duly added an eighth goal but even then Anzhi refused to life down with Sergei Kostin adding a seventh in the last minute.

Anzhi's hopes of make it through this round for the first time at their fifth attempt make have taken a dent but they will look to breathe new life into their prospects against Athina '90 on Wednesday before Víkingur return to action against the Greek club on Thursday.

Main round draw
Group 1:Slov-Matic Bratislava (SVK), FK Nikars Riga (LVA)*, Winner Group F, Winner Group G

Group 2:Iberia Star Tbilisi (GEO), ETO FC Győr (HUN)*, Winner Group D, Winner Group E

Group 3:Marca Futsal (ITA), Tulpar Karagandy (KAZ), FC Lokomotiv Kharkiv (UKR)*, Winner Group A

Group 4:FK EP Chrudim (CZE), FC Litija (SVN), AC Omonia Nicosia (CYP)*, Winner Group B

Group 5: KMF Ekonomac Kragyjevac (SRB)*, Club Futsal Eindhoven (NED), MNK Nacional Zagreb (CRO), Winner Group C

Group 6: Araz Naxçivan (AZE), City'US Târgu Mures (ROU)*, Châtelineau Futsal (BEL), Winner Group H

*Hosts