Benfica beat Pescara on penalties for bronze

• Benfica win third UEFA Futsal Cup medal as they beat Pescara on penalties for bronze
• Debutants Pescara score either side of half-time but Benfica fight back
  
• Bruno Coelho equalises as flying goalkeeper then scores winning penalty
• Highlights in the video player above
  

Benfica produced a fine comeback to wipe out a 2-0 Pescara lead and then produced the perfect penalty shoot-out to win UEFA Futsal Cup bronze.

Though Benfica started brightly, Pescara's pressing game began to bear fruit and just before half-time Mauro Canal bundled in Fabricio Calderolli's corner. The second half had barely begun when Rogerio Da Silva held the ball up for Cristian Borruto to round the Benfica defence and double the lead.

Ré gave Benfica hope with six minutes to go after robbing Gréllo and then, on as flying goalkeeper, Bruno Coelho levelled with just over a minute left. That meant penalties and after Douglas Nicolodi had missed and Juanjo had denied Marco Ercolessi, Coelho converted the winning kick to allow Benfica to add to their 2004 silver and 2010 gold.

Key player: Juanjo (Benfica)
Juanjo has now been involved in five of the nine penalty shoot-outs in this competition's history, starting in 2007 when he kept goal as Murcia FS beat Action 21 Charleroi for bronze. Two days ago, Ugra Yugorsk got the better of Benfica in the semi-final shoot-out, but Juanjo, already brilliant in the 40 regulation minutes, did superbly to stop Ercolessi's kick and give the Eagles what had seemed an unlikely bronze.

©Sportsfile

Reaction:
Juanjo, Benfica goalkeeper
Even though we found ourselves trailing by two goals and couldn't quite get our game flowing quite as we'd like, we managed to pull ourselves back level and kept our cool in the shoot-out. When it goes to penalties keepers have, in theory, less to lose. And though it didn't go our way in the semi-final, this time it went right for us.

We weren't playing that well in the first half and I'd had a few saves to make, but to concede just before half-time was a blow and then to go 2-0 down even more so. But we didn't lose our heads, we stayed in touch on the scoreline and managed to draw level.

[For the decisive penalty save from Marco Ercolessi], I used my intuition to pick a side and just tried to get as much of my body over that part of the goal, and it worked out. We've worked hard for a long time to get this far, and this third place is a reward for everybody, the players, the club and particularly the fans. They came to support us in the semi, when I felt we were unlucky to lose against Ugra, and got their reward for coming back and supporting us today.