Kick-off to the futsal European Championship with victory for the defending champion, the Portugal national team. But he did it with a little scare, because Serbia made things difficult for him. And it is that the Portuguese team, which faced its first major tournament without Ricardinho, already retired from national team futsal, saw how at 7 minutes the scoreboard already marked a 2-0 against. Prsic, first from a penalty and then taking advantage of a Portugal loss in their own half, gave the Balkan side an advantage.
This goal made the group trained by Jorge Braz change the chip. It couldn’t be. So the Portuguese team got down to work and turned the game around. Before the break, Pauleta and Varela leveled the match and after the break, Jesus and Tomás Paço signed the victory.
The opening day was full of comebacks, as the hosts, the Netherlands, also turned their game around to win the first game of the European Championship. They beat the Ukraine team 3-2.
Controversy with the Brazilians
This European has brought with it the first controversy even before it started. And there are selections, like Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Italy or Georgia who have nationalized Brazilian players at the stroke of a checkbook so that they join their ranks. Without going any further, the Georgian team ‘signed’ up to six players to play this competition. A fact that, according to the Portuguese media outlet ‘Zona Técnica Futsal’, could cause some teams to challenge the matches they play against the aforementioned teams.