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MY BEACH SOCCER 
The Russians lifted a fifth EBSL trophy, while Turkey gained promotion from Division B.
Russia are Euro Beach Soccer League champions for a fifth time after beating Portugal 3-1 in Terracina on Sunday.
Mikhail Likhachev’s men join their defeat opponents and Spain in becoming five-time winners of the competition, with goals from Yury Krashenninikov, Alexey Pavlenko and Artur Paporotnyi helped crown Russia’s road to recovery after their surprise absence from the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2017.
Portugal – who scored late on thanks to Jordan Santos’ set-piece – must wait another year to try and become the competition’s most successful side after a strangely subdued display from Europe’s highest ranked nation.
Italy finished third on home sand as they edged a penalty shootout 2-0 against Spain.
The Spanish battled back from two goals down to take the contest to extra time but, having survived an open-goal miss from Gabriele Gori, their luck ran out as Llorenc Gomez and Antonio Mayor faltered from the spot.
Switzerland ended in fifth thanks to a gripping 6-4 win against Belarus while the impressive Vitalii Sydorenko helped 2016 champions Ukraine to victory on penalties against Poland in the seventh-place play-off.
In the Promotion Final, Turkey were promoted to Division A of the Euro Beach Soccer League after beating Estonia 4-2.
Emrah Aykurt’s men were briefly tested, after going 4-0 up, but Yasin Bagci’s early double helped ensure Turkey’s ascension to the top tier while Estonia will look to go one better next year in Division B.
Hungary also got themselves on the podium with a third-place finish after beating Greece 3-1.
The Greeks’ relegation from the top tier was already confirmed prior to their European season finale and, despite taking the lead, they were beaten thanks largely to a brace from Kornel Genczler.
England finished in fifth thanks to a 5-3 win against Bulgaria while Moldova beat Romania by the same scoreline to end in seventh.
Sunday results
08:30 – Romania 3-5 Moldova (Promotion Final – 7th-place play-off)
09:45 – Bulgaria 3-5 England (Promotion Final – 5th-place play-off)
11:00 – Poland (1) 4-4 (2) Ukraine (Superfinal – 7th-place play-off)
12:15 – Switzerland 6-4 Belarus (Superfinal – 5th-place play-off)
13:30 – Greece 1-3 Hungary (Promotion Final – 3rd-place play-off)
14:45 – Estonia 2-4 Turkey (Promotion Final)
16:00 – Spain (0) 2-2 (2) Italy (Superfinal – 3rd-place play-off)
17:15 – Portugal 1-3 Russia (Superfinal)
Standings
Division A: 1st Russia, 2nd Portugal, 3rd Italy, 4th Spain, 5th Switzerland, 6th Belarus, 7th Ukraine, 8th Poland
Division B: 1st Turkey, 2nd Estonia, 3rd Hungary, 4th Greece, 5th England, 6th Bulgaria, 7th Moldova, 8th Romania
Individual Awards
Best Goalkeeper: Maksim Chuzhkov (RUS)
Top Goalscorer: Noel Ott (Nine goals) (SWI)
MVP: Artur Paporotnyi (RUS)
