Russian Controllers Win Bronze in Continental Football Cup

The 50^th European Controllers’ Cup has concluded in Madrid, Spain. 48 teams took part in the event, with Russia represented by two teams from the State ATM Corporation: ‘Russia’ and ‘Moscow’.

Both our teams successfully made their way through the group stage: team ‘Russia’ came first in its group, while  team ‘Moscow’ qualified for the knockout phase as the runner-up. However, the two Russian teams had to play against each other as early as the round of 16 stage. The current champions of the continent outmatched their rivals in this Russian derby. In an intense struggle, team ‘Russia’ won 3:2.

In the quarter-finals, the ATCOs of team ‘Russia’ played against their Portuguese colleagues, team ‘Lisbon’, defeating them 3:0. The semi-final saw a clash between last year’s finalists, teams ‘Russia’ and ‘Reims’. In fact, the semi-final was a hidden final that featured the favourites of the event.

The match was so exciting and spectacular that it drew the attention of other teams’ supporters, who came to see the game. Regulation time expired with the teams tied 1:1. The ATCOs from Reims were lucky at the penalty shoot-out, winning 10:9 and gaining revenge for their last year’s defeat.

Despite being emotionally devastated as they came out onto the field for the bronze medal game, our footballers were able to regain their composure, and rallied to win the game against team ‘Brussels’ 2:0. Our second team, ‘Moscow’, finally came ninth.