On September 19-22, the children FC «Euroshpon-Smyga» (2010) took part in the Benfica Cup 2019 International Tournament, which was held on the base of Benfica Football Academy in Kyiv.
The teams were divided into 2 groups. Our rivals were: FC «Champion-1» Kyiv, FC «Stolitsa-2» Kyiv, El-Bahir of Jerusalem та FA «Benfica-1».
The first match took place with the favorite of the tournament of FC «Champion-1» Kyiv, where the Smyga players in a fierce and emotional fight, won with a score 5:3. In this match, goalkeeper Vladislav Karpets defended his goal from a penalty, which raised the team spirit. The fans and organizers were pleasantly surprised by our children who made it clear that they had come to win. Subsequent group stage matches were successful and by a large margin. So our team confidently made it to the finals.
In the final we have met with team FC «Champion-2» Kyiv, where football players from the capital started game more confident. Pressing on our half of the field, the opponents could not score, because wards of Demianchuk Vasyl Pavlovich controlled the game and skillfully defended. Already in the middle of the first half, our players opened the scoring and subsequently scored the second goal. In the second half of the match, the game was even and very intriguing for all spectators, as player of FC «Champion-2» Kyiv clearly struck a free kick, thus increasing the chances of his team. But the final whistle announced that the winner of the Benfica Cup 2019 tournament was our children and youth FC «Euroshpon-Smyga».
At the end of the tournament, a respectable delegation from the Portuguese «Benfica» took part in the awards ceremony: international club ambassador, legendary captain of «Benfica», ex-player of the Brazil national team – Luisao, Commercial Director of FC «Benfica» Bernardo Carvalho, one of the directors of the world network of academies «Benfica» Miguel Reish, chief scout of FC «Benfica» from juniors Tiago Silva and UAF Vice President Vadim Kostyuchenko.
Our football club has received many awards, namely: Zbitnev Vadim became best forward of the tournament, Karpets Vladislav – the best goalkeeper, Chornozub Maxim received the audience award and a separate award in the form of a certificate for the free camp of FA «Benfica» Kyiv won Gritsevich Yuri.
We are thankful to the tournament organizers for their invitation, warm welcome and high level of helding the international competition.
FC «Euroshpon-Smyga» also visited the match of the Europa League: FC «Dynamo» Kyiv – Malmo (Sweden). Children got unreal emotions after seeing match with high tension of struggle and victory of Ukrainian grand.
Author: Levkova Olena