National futsal team to face Slovakia and Greece

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

President of the Azerbaijan Futsal Federation Zaur Akhundov has met with members of the national team.

The head coach José Alesio da Silva informed the head of the federation about the trainings, Azertag reported.

The futsal team will face Slovakia on January 29 and Greece on February 2 in the qualifying round of the European Championship.

National team continues training at the Baku Sports Palace. Thiago Martins, Eduardo Borges, Éverton Cardoso and Rafael Vilela also joined the team.

Isa Atayev, who has a minor injury, is already training with the national team. However, Fineo Araujo would not be able to play in the upcoming matches due to injury.

Neftchi player Javad Mammadov has been also invited to join national futsal team. He will take part in the national team's training process for the first time.

Azerbaijani futsal players will face Slovakia in the qualifying round of the European Futsal Championship.

The Azerbaijan-Slovakia match will be held on January 29 at the Baku Sports Palace.

Notably, futsal is a ball sport played on a hard court, smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football.

The game is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper. Unlike some other forms of indoor football, the game is played on a hard court surface delimited by lines; walls or boards are not used. 

Azerbaijan had never qualified for the FIFA Futsal World Cup until 2016. However, national futsal players participated in the last five editions of the European Championship.

Now futsal team successfully represents Azerbaijan at multiple international futsal competitions such as the FIFA Futsal World Cup and the European Championships.

The team is ranked 14th in the world, the highest-ranking team from Caucasus in the World Rankings.