CUFC – Birmingham Tigers Futsal Club = 6-4 (HT: 3-2)

Lino Cebey, Chay Jakes, Alberto Morcillo © (1), Fabio Anjos (1), Angel Antelo Martinez, Toby Hardwick, Monty Bouttell, Vitalii Burnus (1), Pedro Pereira, Miguel Gelabert (1), Greg Birch, Justo Lopez

Cambridge United hosted Birmingham side Tigers last Sunday in a game that promised to keep the 50 strong crowd entertained on a noon kickoff at the University of Cambridge Sports Centre.

Cambridge started the game off well, with good intensity and seemed to get the best chances of the initial 5 minutes. However, Tigers were the team to get first on the score sheet after a counter attack with the pivot rounding the oncoming Cambridge keeper to give the visitors the lead.

The Us reacted almost immediately and through Morcillo managed to get the equaliser after a 10 meter low shot to the far post. It was a cagey affair for the rest of the first half but eventually Tigers got on the score sheet once again from a kick-in, at a moment of lack of concentration from the Us.

Anjos, the latest addition to the home side this season, managed to get the equaliser once again and put the Us back on level terms. With not long left in the first half Cambridge saw the opposition rush forward and get a 3rd goal to send both teams to half time.

In the second half, the Us showed a much better display, knowing they had to convert their chances and press forward. Despite this turning the game very one sided, Cambridge were leaving space behind and Tigers took one of the few chances they had on the counter to bring the score up to 4-2 within a couple of minutes of the second half.

With 10 minutes left on the clock, Mendonca’s side decided to risk on the fly keeper and more chances kept coming for the home side. Cambridge were starting to get desperate after their efforts kept ending up on the woodwork or just narrowly missing the goal, until Burnus and Gelabert managed to get on the score sheet to bring the score down to 1 goal difference. Unfortunately, there were only 30 seconds on the clock and through an unsuccessful last second attempt Tigers managed to counter and score on the dying seconds of the game.

Cambridge will now face Manchester Futsal Club 2 weekends in a row, with the first fixture being played on Sunday (6/11/2016) at the National Cycling Arena in Manchester.