With 56 games gone before, there was just one more game left to decide the winners of the tournament – the 2011 Algarve Open Cup Final. We had a great final in store and a fantastic crowd assembled by Pitch A and in the beer garden overlooking the pitch. It was a fantastic atmosphere for the two finalists to play in. Those two teams would be Athletico Do Hollande and Cheesecake FC.

Athletico Do Hollande were bidding to become the first team to retain a title in eurofootballfives.com history. Teams had come close before when England's Goldsmith Williams won the 2008 Prague Masters only to lose the 2009 final to Lozenetz City of Bulgaria. The Bulgarians then lost the 2010 final to Olympic Phil Babb. Spanish team Anglo Knights won the 2009 Barcelona Fives and reached the 2010 final where they lost to Magic Monkeys. The Dutch team would hope that this fate would not befit them.

Cheesecake FC were hoping to inflict such a defeat in their first eurofootballfives.com history. They would provide tough opposition as they had yet to lose a game in our tournaments having gone 12 games unbeaten. The only reason they had failed to win a tournament was due to a penalty shoot-out loss.

It was Cheesecake FC who drew first blood in the final when Chris McDaid's 4th goal of the day gave them a vital lead. The goal met with the approval of a partisan crowd who were all cheering on the English team. Whilst Cheesecake FC had played superbly and put together a great run of results you sensed from the crowd that Athletico Do Hollande were the favourites and they wanted the underdogs to prevail.

Athletico Do Hollande had fallen behind before in this tournament, most notably to RS Ocean Village FC in the Quarter-Finals. On that occasion they came back with a vengeance to win 5-1. They were able to comeback again in this game when they equalized through Giorgio Fraenk. That's how the game stood when the teams turned round at the interval, 1-1.

In the second period the crowd went wild as Mark Hignett strolled up from the back and thumped a shot past Redouan El Hamidi in the Dutch goal and it was 2-1 to Cheesecake FC. With time running out it looked as if there was no way back from Athletico Do Hollande – the game looked like it was going against them as they hit the bar and saw a great bicycle kick go narrowly wide. The game was ebb and flow though and Cheesecake FC had a chance to make it 3-1. They were made to pay for this miss though when Toufik Haddouchi equalized for 2-2. It was his 9th goal of the tournament and a goal that won him the top goalscorer's prize although that was of secondary importance at this stage.

At 2-2 there were chances for both teams but both went begging and then with only a minute or two to go Giorgio Fraenk scored the games 5th goal and the most crucial goal as it put Athletico Do Hollande 3-2 up. The Dutch went crackers and there was barely any time for Cheesecake FC to turn it around. The referee (who had produced a fine display in such a hot atmosphere) blew for full time and sparked emotional celebrations from the Dutch team.

It was pretty tough on Cheesecake FC who could not have come closer to winning and could not have pushed their opponents any further. For Athletico Do Hollande it was a great result and a hard fought result that saw them enter the eurofootballfives history books as the first team to retain a title. They also joined a select group of teams to have won two eurofootballfives tournaments - Olympic Phil Babb (4), Goldsmith Williams (2), Lozenetz City (2) and now Athletico Do Hollande (2).

We send our congratulations to all the teams who participated in what was a great day's competition. The tournament had everything and we look forward to seeing you all again very soon.