Courtesy: London 2012 Paralympic Games


France and Brazil book final showdown

06 September 2012

Frederic Villeroux scored twice to send France through to their first-ever Paralympic Football 5-a-side final, where they will face Brazil - who needed a penalty shootout success to book their spot.

Double European champions France scored in both halves to beat Spain 2-0 as they maintained their record of not conceding a goal en route to Saturday's final.

Villeroux proved to be the difference between the two sides, going close twice in the first six minutes before he broke the deadlock two minutes before the interval, cutting inside Francisco Munoz Perez to score.

Marcelo Rosado Carrasco should have equalised soon after the restart, but he shot weakly with only France goalkeeper Jonathan Grangier to beat.

Spain took their timeout with five minutes left on the clock as they desperately tried to find a way to equalise and with Spain pushing forward, Villeroux made sure of progression to the final when he directed the ball into the far corner with a minute left.

'We have reached our goal,' said Villeroux. 'We’ve come here to win. We planned to reach the final back in January.

'We have the best group of people in this team - we’re a strong unit.'

In the other semi-final, Fabio de Vasconcelos was Brazil's hero as he produced two penalty saves to put the defending champions into their third consecutive Paralympic Games final as they beat Argentina in a shootout.

Following a goalless draw in normal time, De Vasconcelos saved spot-kicks from Luis Sacayan and Froilan Padilla, while Gabriel de Silva's successful spot-kick was enough to put Brazil through.

Now they will bid for an unprecedented hat-trick of titles, but coach Ramon Pereira de Souza knows that will not be easy.

He said: 'Just because we have won the gold two times before does not mean this time should be any less important. This next final is more important because it is more difficult to defend the title of being gold medallists.'




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com