Sporting CP and Benfica will go head to head in Lisbon in the UEFA Futsal Champions League elite round, starting Wednesday.
Elite round groups
Group A (14–17 November): Inter FS (ESP, holders), Dobovec (SVN), Halle-Gooik (BEL), Vytis (LTU, hosts)
Group B (15–18 November): TTG-Ugra Yugorsk (RUS), Barça (ESP, hosts), Ekonomac Kragujevac (SRB), Record Bielsko-Biała (POL)
Group C (15–18 November): Benfica (POR), Sporting CP (POR, hosts), Sibiryak (RUS), Novo Vrijeme Makarska (CRO)
Group D (14–17 November): Kairat Almaty (KAZ), EP Chrudim (CZE, hosts), LSM Lida (BLR), AS Futsal Pescara (ITA)
- The four group winners will progress to the knockout finals, with one of those clubs appointed hosts for the event on 25 or 26 and 27 or 28 April.
Key facts
- Inter are aiming for a record third title in a row and sixth overall.
- Former champions Ugra and Barça are matched.
- Barça beat Ekomomac 3-2 in last season’s elite round.
- 2010 winners Benfica and three-time runners-up Sporting have met in 12 Portuguese play-off finals but never in Europe.
- Sporting CP have reached three finals, losing the last two to Inter.
- Twice champions Kairat have been ever present in all 13 elite rounds under this format; Chrudrim are in their 11th but are yet to reach the finals (and have lost to Kairat four times in this round).
- Kairat beat Lida 6-0 in the main round.
- Kairat and Chrudim’s opponents AS Futsal Pescara are the seventh different Italian side to reach the elite round, one more than Ukraine.
- Novo Vrijeme and Sibiryak, in Benfica and Sporting’s group, are the other two competition debutants remaining.
- Preliminary round survivors Vytis are the first Lithuanian team to reach the elite round, the 32nd different nation to be represented.
- Record Bielsko-Biała, who also came through the preliminary round, have also reached the elite round for the first time.
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