Azerbaijan reach FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifying play-offs

The Azerbaijan national futsal team have progressed to the FIFA World Cup qualifying play-offs, after defeating Ukraine 4-2 in the qualifying main round here. Croatia gave hope for a good performance on home territory next month with their opening 3-1 defeat of EURO 2010 semi-finalists Azerbaijan, staging the group in Baku, while Ukraine began by beating Macedonia 2-1. A day later Ukraine defeated Croatia 4-1 while Azerbaijan recovered to win 7-1 against Macedonia, aided by a Felipe hat-trick.

Croatia put themselves in position by overcoming Macedonia 4-1, meaning they could only be denied if Azerbaijan beat Ukraine by between two and four goals. With eight minutes left that game was level but then Serjao and Vitaliy Borisov struck in quick succession to make it 4-2 and take Azerbaijan through, above Croatia by a single goal in a three-way head-to-head tie-breaker, with Ukraine top.
 

/AzerTAc/