UEFA Futsal Champions League main round report

Holders Barça and former winners Benfica, Kairat Almaty and Sporting CP are among those through from the UEFA Futsal Champions League main round.

In all 16 teams, including those four past champions and debutants Città di Eboli, Loznica-Grad 2018, Palma, Piast Gliwice and Pula, are into the elite round, which will be drawn at 14:15 CET on Thursday and played from 22 to 27 November, deciding the four finalists.

The 24 highest-ranked entrants entered at this stage, the other eight contenders came through by winning their preliminary round groups in August. Those eight were among the 16 in Path B, alongside the entering clubs ranked 13th to 16th and 21st to 25th. The four Path A groups contained the 12 highest-ranked clubs plus the teams 17th to 20th.

Both paths were played at one-venue mini-tournaments, with 12 teams going through from Path A and four from Path B to November's elite round, which will then decide the four contenders for the knockout finals in spring.

Main round groups

Path A

• Top three teams in each group went through.
• Holders Barça progressed along with fellow former champions Kairat (making a record 19th appearance), Sporting CP and Benfica.
• Sporting's João Matos is the new competition player appearance record-holder after passing the old mark of 69 held by Rizvan Farzaliyev and Lúcio.
• Palma and Pula are through on debut.
• Luxol are the first team from Malta to reach the elite round; United Galati are also making that stage for the first time.
• Barça's Jesús Velasco became the first person to coach more than 60 games in the competition; Alesio of Araz became the third past 50 (after Velasco and Sporting's Nuno Dias).

Group 1
Through to elite round: Mallorca Palma Futsal (ESP), Sporting Anderlecht Futsal (BEL, hosts), Kairat Almaty (KAZ)
Also in group: Sporting Club de Paris (FRA)

Group 2
Through to elite round: Sporting CP (POR), Novo Vrijeme Makarska (CRO, hosts), Futsal Pula (CRO)
Also in group: Ayat (KAZ)

João Matos in action against Ayat becoming the first player to take part in 70 UEFA futsal club gamesSporting Clube de Portugal

Group 3
Through to elite round: Barça (ESP, holders), Luxol St. Andrews (MLT, hosts), Dobovec (SVN)
Also in group: Hovocubo (NED)

Group 4
Through to elite round so far: Benfica (POR), Uragan lvano-Frankivsk* (UKR), United Galati (ROU, hosts)
Also in group: Haladás (HUN)

*Uragan replace Kherson.

Barça and Luxol enjoy their mutual success in MaltaDomenic Aquilina

Path B

• Group winners progess to the elite round.
• Chrudim competed in a record 13th main round mini-tournament, and got through for the 12th time.
• Città di Eboli, Loznica-Grad 2018 and Piast Gliwice are through on debut.
• Loznica-Grad 2018 and Piast have progressed to the elite round after starting in the preliminary round.

Group 5
Through to elite round: Loznica-Grad 2018 (SRB),
Also in group: Mostar SG (BIH, hosts), Örebro (SWE), Araz Naxçivan (AZE)

Loznica-Grad celebrate progressLoznica-Grad 2018

Group 6
Through to elite round: Piast Gliwice (POL)
Also in group: Stalitsa Minsk (BLR), JB Futsal Gentofte (DEN), Liqeni (KOS, hosts)

Piast Gliwice enjoy their successFC Liqeni

Group 7
Through to elite round: Città di Eboli (ITA)
Also in group: Kauno Žalgiris (LTU, hosts), Petro-w (LVA), Kampuksen Dynamo (FIN)

Group 8
Through to elite round: Chrudim (CZE), Differdange (LUX), Lučenec (SVK), Shkupi 1927 (MKD, hosts)

Meet the teams

• Barça won their fourth title last season and hope to equal Inter FS's record tally of five.
• Sporting CP lost the 2022 final but won in 2019 and 2021; they and Barça between them have shared the four titles since the 2018/19 rebranding from the UEFA Futsal Cup.
• Kairat (2013 and 2015) and Benfica (2010) are also past champions.
• Kairat are making a record 19th appearance, 2014 bronze-medallists Araz their 17th appearance.
• Chrudim are competing in a record 13th main round mini-tournament, having got past this stage on 11 of their 12 previous attempts.
• Anderlecht previously entered as Halle-Gooik.
• Croatia have two entrants for the first time (Novo Vrijeme Makarska and Pula), and they will meet in main round Group 2. 
• Differdange, Gentofte, Kampuksen Dynamo, Loznica-Grad 2018, Lučenec, Örebro, Petro-w and Piast Gliwice progressed from the preliminary round.
• Città di Eboli, Palma and Pula are making their competition debuts in this round, with Loznica, Örebro and Piast similarly in their first European campaigns.
• Differedange, Gentofte, Petro-w are also in the main round for the first time; Differdange did play in the one-off knockout round of 32 in 2020/21, when they lost 4-0 to Chrudim.
• Kampuksen Dynamo, Liqeni, Lučenec, Luxol, Shkupi and United Galati are further teams seeking elite round debuts (United Galati did play in the one-off round of 16 in 2020/21).
• No clubs from Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta or Sweden have got to the elite round.
• Kairat beat Sporting Paris 11-7 in a 2014/15 elite round decider on their way to the title.
• Sporting beat Novo Vrijeme Makarska 4-0 in the 2018/19 elite round and 6-0 at the same stage a year later, when they also won 5-2 against Ayat, who were beaten 3-2 by the Croatian club.
• Barça beat Dobovec 2-0 in the 2020/21 quarter-finals in Zadar and 8-2 in last season's elite round. Dobovec had beaten Luxol 3-2 in the round of 32.
• Benfica beat Haladás 8-3 in last season's elite round before both clubs defeated Uragan lvano-Frankivsk 4-0.
• Araz beat Mostar 5-2 in the 2017/18 main round.