(MENAFN- Arab Times) Egypt's Misr Makasa and Cardinal-Rivne of Ukraine are set to battle for the Mini World Futsal Club Tourn-ament championship trophy after both sides won their respective semi final matches Wednesday. Makasa finished 3-2 against Spanish champions Santiago Futsal while Cardinal triumphed 2-1 over MNK Alumnus of Croatia.
Alumnus' Josip Juric drew first blood to power the Croats into the lead after seven minutes of play which saw them dominate proceedings for the better part of the first ten minutes. The Ukrainian champions only opened up their game, in their attempts at goal, spreading out into opposition turf after conceding the goal.
But Alumnus stood their ground and held off Cardinal's constant barrages at the keeper to cling to their one goal advantage at the end of the first half. The Croatian keeper was simply marvelous in the goalposts, parrying off all salvoes shot at him by the Cardinals in the final seconds before the end of first half.
Cardinal returned into the second half with a different game plan that saw them take command of the game spreading out afield into attack and quickly drawing back to defense, a strategy that pushed the four times Croatian Futsal Champions back to defend their slim advantage, behind some excellent goalkeeping by 28 year old Dragan Lukic.
But the Ukrainians persisted in their barrages till Bondar Oleksandr found the perfect opportunity to slip through opposition defense to slot in the equalizer nine minutes into the second half. The Croats came several times close to scoring but a bolstered Cardinal defense wall stood in their way, even as they continued to pile on the pressure.
Getting to the final stretch of the game, the Croats seemed to hedge their bet on a penalty shootout, should the game travel full time to a 1-1 deadlock. And as they beefed up their defenses, Cardinal revved up their attack and with just eight seconds left on the clock, Serhii struck the ball behind the Croatian keeper for Cardinal's winning goal to close the game 2-1 for the Ukrainians to book their berth for the finals.
Meanwhile, another cracker of a game was in the offing when Spanish Champions Santiago and Makasa of Egypt filed onto the court. Alan Cuasnicú opened scoring for the Spaniards' campaign in the seventh minute and just a minute later in the eighth minute, Ahmed Abdullatef knocked in the equalizer. He scored again in the fourteenth minute to hand Makasa a one goal advantage at the halftime mark.
The Spaniards took control of the game in the second half with ferocious but precise stringing of the ball from one corner of the turf to another, leading finally to an excellent equalizing goal scored by Diego Carill to make the scores 2-2 in the 23rd minute.
And as the Santiago momentum continued, an Egyptian striker won the ball on his way to score when he was hacked down for a Makasa penalty which Ayman Abdulkader converted neatly to put the Egyptians ahead, 3-2, a score line they managed to take to the end, thus setting up a championship final clash against Cardinal-Rivne of Ukraine on Friday, July 26 at the climax of the 17-day Mini World Futsal Club tournament.
Santiago and Alumnus battle for third place Thursday, July 25. The Santiago coach bemoaned the absence of key player Hamza Massoud who he said was victim of violent tackles in their titanic quarter final encounter against Argentina's Pinocho club.
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