Spain lift the first ever UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO trophy

Spain defeated hosts Portugal 4-0 in the final and were crowned the first ever UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO champions.

The first UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO finals took place in Portugal which was another great leap forward for futsal and, in particular, the women’s game.

Ahead of the competition Portugal’s captain, Ana Azevedo told UEFA.com that “It’s amazing, it’s a dream come true,” as she looked ahead to the first UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO, which took place at the Pavilhão Multiusos de Gondomar in Porto between 15 and 17 February.

Hosts Portugal and Spain met in the final of the inaugural UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO after winning their respective semi-finals. Spain were the first to book their place in the final, comfortably beating Russia 5-0,  Vanessa Sotelo opened the scoring in the 17th minute before Amelia Romero added two goals in the 19th and 25th minutes. Lucía Gómez González and Irene Samper also got on the score sheet, putting the game behind doubt.

Portugal defeated Ukraine 5-1 in the second semi-final of the day. Janice Silva opened the scoring for the Portuguese in the 13th minute before their opponents equalised through Anna Sydorenko. This turned out to be a consolatory goal for Ukraine however, with Ana Sofia Goncalves restoring Portugal’s lead in the 27th minute. Silva and Goncalves then got another goal each in the dying minutes to ensure Portugal’s progress.

Before the final kicked off, both nations had competed against each other a total of 26 times, Spain winning 14 to Portugal’s 5, and leading 86-54 in goals. They last met in January in Spain: the home team won the first friendly 4-3 before Portugal prevailed 2-1. Speaking at the press conference before the final both coaches commented:

Claudia Pons, Spain coach
“We’ve played Portugal many times but a final is a final. Whoever makes fewer mistakes will win, and they are very strong opponents so we will need to be at our best to win the trophy.”

Luís Conceição, Portugal coach
“I expect a very well-balanced match. Spain have a similar style to us and have players that can make the difference, just like Portugal.”

Contrary to Luis’s thoughts, Spain defeated hosts Portugal 4-0 in the final and were crowned the first ever UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO champions. The Spanish side had the game won within the first 10 minutes following goals from Mayte Mateo, captain Anita Lujan and Amelia Romero. Portugal failed to recover from this early onslaught and Spain sealed the victory when made it 4-0 in the 35th minute.

Vanessa Sotelo

Sotelo was named the player of the tournament for her significant role in the title-winning team, while Romero finished as the top scorer with three goals. Earlier in the day, Russia beat Ukraine on penalties to take the bronze medal. The game had finished at 2-2, with Dina Danilova and Viktoriia Lebedeva scoring for Russia and Snezhana Volovenko and Yuliya Tytova equalising for Ukraine. Russia then won the penalty shoot out 3-2.

Picture and video from UEFA Futsal Twitter