Portugal faces Ukraine in final futsal game of 2025

On Pre-Christmas weekend, Tavira, Portugal hosted final 2025 footsal preparation matches for 2026 European Futsal Championship.  Team Portugal met team Ukraine on December 19 and 21.

First match day on December 19 ended in draw (1–1) with Ihor Korsun (UA) and Rúben Góis (PT) being the goalmakers. The deciding match on Sunday, December 21 resulted in victory for team Portugal (5-2). Scoring players were: Pauleta (19′), Tiago Brito (28′, penalty), Hugo Neves (31′) and Tomás Paçó (32′ and 39′). Korsun (33′) and Shved (38′) scored for team Ukraine. The amount of comebacks and goals left more than 2000 spectators who attended the match in awe.

Prior to game weekend, Portugal and Ukraine played 12 matches. Portuguese team accomplished five wins, three draws, and three losses, with the latest match played in August 2024, in Viseu, in preparation for the World Championship in Uzbekistan. Notably, Ukraine ended 3rd in the latest Futsal World Championship and reached semi-finals of 2022 European Championship.

2026 Futsal European Championship is to be held in Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia (January 21 to February 7), Portugal is part of Group D, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, sharing the group with Italy, Hungary and Poland. Portugal is current EU futsal two-time champion (2018 Slovenia, 2022 Netherlands) and is considered to be among favorites for the upcoming championship.