London White Bear 4-4 Ipswich Wolves (Wolves win 5-4 on penalties)
The FA UMBRO Futsal Cup
The English Institute Of Sport, Sheffield
Reigning FA Futsal Cup champions Ipswich Wolves edged a step closer to retaining their title on Saturday evening, after beating the competition's second favourites London White Bear - USSR in the quarter finals.
In what was a tense and thrilling encounter throughout, it looked as though the Suffolk based team could have been on their way home after falling 3-1 behind in the second half.
However, with their ever obvious team spirit, Wolves bounced back to level things up and then edge ahead in extra time only for the Bears to equalise with less than a minute of the game remaining, meaning kicks from the penalty spot would decide which of the teams would progress into the final four of the competition.
With both teams particularly equally matched, it was Wolves who took an early lead with just four minutes on the clock, when they took advantage of a defensive error from the team made up of Russian and Ukrainian players to open the scoring.
The lead didn’t last for long though as the Bears struck back to equalise via a stunning long range free kick.
The Bears then took the lead with two minutes of the first half remaining when their skipper was left free in the area to finish well and put them ahead at the break.
Six minutes after the restart, the Bears went further ahead when a long throw forward by their goalkeeper into the Wolves area was contested by their striker, whose challenge forced the Wolves keeper into a mis-timed punch which rolled over the line and into the goal, much to their dismay.
They soon put the setback behind them though and just a minute later they reduced the arrears to 3-2 with a nice piece of Futsal on the left flank resulting in a good finish.
With the momentum now behind the Wolves, made up of players from the Portuguese community in Suffolk, they soon found themselves level after a corner wasn’t fully cleared by the Bears and a goalmouth scramble eventually resulted in a close range poke home to see the game into extra time.
An accumulation of fouls from White Bears resulted in a penalty kick being awarded to the Wolves and when that was expertly dispatched, the holders looked destined for the semis.
The Bears weren’t finished though and after forcing numerous spells of possession and pressure in the second period of extra time, they found a leveller with just 55 seconds left on the clock.
So to penalties it went and after both teams scored four of their initial five spot kicks, it went on to sudden death.
A save from the enigmatic Wolves keeper meant that one more goal would be enough and needless to say, their final penalty was expertly rifled home to prompt mass celebrations from the champions.
Elsewhere, the other teams to seal a place in the Semi-Finals were Helvecia Futsal, Tranmere Victoria and Corinthians, who had quarter final wins against Loughborough Students, Sheffield FC and Baltic Futsal Club respectively.
Ipswich Wolves will face Tranmere Victoria, whilst Helvecia take on Corinthians in the other Semi-Final.
See all of the results from Saturday on FULL TIME by clicking here.