STA, February 10, 2018- Portugal beat defending champions Spain 3:2 in the finals to claim their first UEFA Futsal Euro title as the tournament in Ljubljana wrapped up on Saturday.
Portugal's wizard Ricardinho struck early, stealing the ball mid-court and scoring his seventh goal of the tournament to give Portugal a 1:0 lead less than a minute into the match.
The seven-time champions Spain pressed harder for an equalising goal in the last minutes of the first half, and Tolra managed to score from just outside the box one minute to go off an assist from Lin.
Spain took care of a turnaround some eight minutes to go, as it was easy for Lin to put the ball in the net from two metres out off an assist by Miguelin after a short free kick.
Three minutes to go, Portugal put Pedro Cary as the flying goalie, and he assisted for a goal by Bruno Coelho, who was waiting by the far post to equalise the score to 2:2 and force overtime.
With one minute left in the overtime, Portugal had a ten-metre penalty kick as Spain accumulated six fouls, and Bruno Coelho followed up his equalising goal with a perfect kick to bring Portugal the victory.
Ricardinho, who left the match a few minutes before the end with injury, was declared the player of the tournament, having scored a record seven goals.
In the third-place match, Russia defeated Kazakhstan 1:0 in a hard-fought match to win bronze, their ninth medal at the European futsal championships.
It was Eder Lima who scored the only goal of the match, hammering the ball below the crossbar from some ten metres out in the 29th minute.
The tournament in Slovenia was the last Futsal Euro to be held every two years and with twelve teams, with the next tournament to be held four years from now and featuring 16 teams.
In the third place play-off, Russia beat Kazakhstan 1:0, with highlights shown below.
