Barça defeats the Russian Communist Party on penalties and will play the Champions League final against El Pozo

The

had to grit his teeth very strong.

And almost, sweating blood against the Russian KPRF, a true debutant in European matches who sold his defeat at the Palau Blaugrana, the venue, without an audience, of the

.

But, in the end, this Sunday he will be in a final in which he will face an

that beat another Russian team,

, 2-1 in the other semifinal.

Regulation time ended with a tie at two goals.

The Barcelona captain, Sergio Lozano, and Ferrao scored for the Catalans.

Romulo and Asadov, for the KPRF.

The extension, meanwhile, ended with 3-3 on the scoreboard.

Esquerdinha advanced to Andreu Plaza's only to see how Nando, after a maximum penalty by Adolfo's hand with 12 seconds to the end of extra time, sent the duel to penalties.

There, the failure of a former Barcelona player, Lin, ended up being entirely decisive for the Catalans to fight for what would be their third European title.

KPRF, Barça's rival, is not just any team.

It was founded 17 years ago by the Russian Communist Party, to play a tournament with other teams from political formations.

Its name, precisely, corresponds to the acronym, in Russian, of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

A name to which the abbreviations MFC are added, which in this case correspond to "mini football club".

He was proclaimed champion of that tournament and the party decided that, perhaps, it would be a good idea to keep him.

Little by little, it made its way to the Russian Super League, the highest category of football in that country, in which it debuted in 2013 and in which, initially, it even had problems maintaining the category.

This same 2020, however, he has been proclaimed champion for the first time.

Which means that, unlike the rest of the teams that gathered in this Final Four of the Champions 2020, it arrived with its presence in the next edition of the tournament completely assured.

But, of course, do not be fooled by its origins.

The KPRF seems to be more than willing both to be the new dominator of the league in its country and not to be exactly a stranger in the maximum continental competition of futsal.

In their ranks there are names of great quality, those of the former Barça players

, and that of another Spanish international,

, who was in the lower categories of the Barcelona team.

In her case, garments do not hurt when pulling the checkbook.

Something extremely curious, considering the ideology of the party that spawned it.

Russian insistence

In the first minutes, the KPRF tried to take advantage of the physical tone required by the Russian competition, in which the matches last 25 minutes per part, instead of the 20 that are played in both Spain and Europe, and much more is allowed contact between the players, to lock up Barça in their field and insistently seek the option of opening the scoreboard.

Those first attempts were unsuccessful and the Catalans, by means of a powerful shot from Lozano's house, managed to beat the opposing goal for the first time, a Tsaider who had signed a great action before the first threat from the Barça players and put the 1-0 on the scoreboard in the sixth minute of the match.

The Russians responded, forcing Dídac to show his best mettle over and over again, just as he had done in the first few moments to thwart a dangerous approach from the rival.

The threats from the KPRF could not find a way to reach the bright

and

, pulling on his proverbial strength, scored 2-0 for Barça just two minutes after

opening goal

.

Just when it looked like he was losing the ball, he managed to get up and send the ball to the back of the net.

The Brazilian, almost immediately, would have another good opportunity that, this time, would die at the hands of Tsaider.

An action that Dídac, in the other goal, would be responsible for replicating after a hard distant shot from Rómulo.

In the final moments of the first half, the Russians were dangerously charged with five fouls, but Barça could not find a way to force a double penalty that, in principle, should have allowed them to enjoy a much more comfortable advantage.

And, on the horn, after two good options by Raúl Gómez who did not find the way to the goal, his rivals closed the gap with a goal from

and sent the game into halftime with a meager 2-1 for Barcelona.

At the restart, KPRF took to the track seriously convinced of their chances of at least putting the equalizer on the scoreboard.

And why not, also to turn the tables.

He insisted so much that, in the end, he found a prize with a 2-2 scored at pleasure by

, after a mistake by Aicardo in which he unsuccessfully requested a foul, with half time still to be disputed.

Ferrao, in his pivot role, found the option to put his team back in front, but found a good response from Tsaider.

The Russians were emboldened by the draw.

And, consequently, they launched a fence around Dídac's goal, as they had already done at the start of the match.

The Barça goalkeeper had to work overtime to prevent the ball from kissing his net again.

Extra time and penalties

Lin had an excellent option to do so in the final stretch of the game, but his shot missed over the crossbar as Dídac desperately tried to cover spaces.

Barça, in the last moments of regulation time, found enough claw to solve their physical deficiencies and pay the KPRF with the same coin.

His attempts, however, did not find the way to the goal and the game inevitably went into extra time, despite the fact that Lozano, with a new long shot, again put Tsaider's reflexes to the test.

The positive inertia of the last moments had positive effects for Barça.

, after a very good personal action by Brazilian Daniel Shiraishi, scored 3-2 for Barça in the 43rd minute of the game.

The KPRF, far from surrendering, would very soon have a great opportunity to equalize the score again with a very distant shot from its goalkeeper that went out practically touching the right post of Didac's goal, but life would be complicated unspeakably with a fifth foul (in extra time those committed in the second half are accumulated) that opened the option of a double penalty for the Catalans.

Barça greatly protested a possible sixth foul on Daniel that was quickly followed by the fifth Barça, committed by Ferrao in his attempt to get rid of his defender.

From that moment on, any mistake could be very expensive.

The KPRF turned to a figure that, in Russia, they do not usually need at all: the goalkeeper player.

The Catalans sweated blood to try to preserve their advantage.

They even protested a possible hand from Romulo that could have been a double penalty.

But, with 12 seconds to go, they saw how the referees whistled a penalty by Adolfo's hand inside the area that

turned into 3-3 with almost no time for anything else.

The penalties were responsible for ultimately deciding the second finalist of the Champions League.

Ferrao, Daniel, Esquerdinha and Diego scored the first four for Barça.

Lin, on the other hand, missed the second for the KPRF.

Nando, Saiotti, Rómulo and Asadov scored theirs and left everything in the boots of a Sergio Lozano who slammed the ball into the back of the goal on the decisive launch.

He wants another to lift another top European title.

And he will do everything in his power to achieve it.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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