Futsal: Euro Dreams & Champions League Challenge | Sportacentrs.com

In the round of 16 of the Champions League against “Prishtina 01” of Kosovo, the Riga players were big favorites, however, they were forced to save themselves from a loss (3:3) despite a great control of the ball on the road, but they dominated at home with 8:1. If in Kosovo, “Riga” got into a chasing role early with 0:2, then they won 4:0 early on their field. In a conversation with the Sportacentrs.com portal, Kulepov agreed that scoring first was the main difference, why the games turned out so differently: “That was also the key. We needed to score the first goal, and then we continued to play fast and aggressively, pressed and didn’t let them take a break in front at all. Here is the result!

On the road, we moved the ball too slowly and were not aggressive enough – at home, as soon as we received the ball, we went aggressively, played in one or two passes, looked for forward areas, ran, shot at the goal. We could have played even better, but in general we played well – while it was one of our worst games on the road, we also underestimated the opponent.” In Pristina, the Riga players scored two goals after corner kicks and also scored the first two goals at home with standard situations. “It is definitely our trump card. This is the case for many of the best teams in the world, because there are many set pieces in indoor football and many goals can be scored that way. However, we also need to create more from the game – we must not rely only on standard situations.”

The Argentinian captain of “Riga”, Dylan Vargas, collected 1+3 in two matches of the round of 16, playing a big role in standard situations, and continues to dedicate his goals to the great Argentine football legend Diego Maradona. Photo: Igor Timofeevs/Riga Futsal Club

For the third season in a row, “Riga” has reached the final four of the Champions League. In the previous two seasons, they took second place in the Elite round behind the Spanish clubs “Barcelona” and “Cartagena”, but in the new format of this season, they will face another Spanish club “Palma” in the quarter-finals. If in the local championship “Palma” is not doing so brilliantly even with ten Brazilians, then the club has already triumphed in the Champions League for three seasons in a row. “Everyone understands that it will be difficult and that we will be last, but it will be a very good step for growth. We will do our best, and this time the return match will also be at our home. I think we have achieved the minimum goal of entering the quarter-finals, but we, like all the leading teams, dream of entering the final four. This is the main goal of the season, because, let’s be objective, we train and prepare only with the goal of becoming the Champion league, not the Latvian championship. Every year we are getting closer to the final four – we will do everything possible to make it, and then we will see how it will be.”

If in previous years, Latvian clubs or the national team had to host UEFA games in Jelgava or Salaspils, then the new Team Sports Hall has allowed the Eurocups to return to the capital – “Riga” plays “Rimi” in the Olympic Center on a daily basis, and the Teams played in the Sports Hall for the first time. “I had also trained here with the national team, but unfortunately I couldn’t play against Portugal due to an injury. The impression of the hall is generally good, you need to get used to the pitch, but in general it is okay. The fans also came and gave an extra push. We trained here during the week of the game, this week was very difficult for me personally – nothing went well at all, I couldn’t receive the ball, my legs were sore. In the Latvian championship, it would be said that the best hall is in our usual “Rimi” Olympic Center, but the slowest hall could probably be in Kuldīga – also the most traumatic if you don’t train there every day.”

Photo: Igor Timofeevs/Riga Futsal Club

The saddest representative of “Riga” in Friday’s victory was another Islander Artjoms Kozlovskis, who was left out of the game due to an administrative error and accidentally painfully hit a ball boy in the face with the ball during the warm-up. Photo: Igor Timofeevs/Riga Futsal Club

Next week in the Czech Republic, the Latvian national team with Kuļepov in the line-up against Kosovo, the Czech Republic and Lithuania will play the last tournament before the final tournament of the European Championship, which will be held in Lithuania and Slovenia in addition to Latvia in January and February. If one of Kuļepov’s dreams for the season is to reach the final four of the Champions League with the club, then the other dream is with the Latvian national team: “To reach the playoffs. And it is not even a dream, but a goal – it will be difficult, it is understandable, all opponents are ranked higher than us, but it is an achievable goal. Seeing what we are currently showing, I think everything will be fine. We believe in the coach, the coach believes in us. We will be in the group. dark horse It’s the European Championship and there will be only one game against each team – the first game must be won [pret Gruziju]and then everything else will depend only on us.”

The dissolution of the RFS opened the way for Edgar Tarakanov (Belgium), Mika Babri (Portugal), Andrej Baklanov (Italy) and Artjom Troicki (Polish 1st League) to go abroad, but Kulepov is also thinking about going abroad, who at a recent press conference in Kuldiga did not shy away from stating this out loud as his goal: “I don’t have an agent, but I have contacts through which I can get to abroad. I won’t reveal who they are (smiles). I haven’t had an opportunity yet. I’m working, I’m playing, I’m trying to show my best performance in every game.”

“Euro 2026” subgroups

1/4 finals of the Champions League

The games are scheduled for February 23 at the first team’s field and March 6 at the second team’s field.