In 2010 and 2011 Athletico Do Hollande flew in from Amsterdam to claim glory but there would be a new name on the Algarve Open's list of winners in 2012 as the Dutch were unable to make the journey this year. Who could claim the prized trophy in their absence?

The first two challengers to get us underway in Group A on Pitch A would be CFC A (Fra) versus Bede FC (Eng). CFC A aka Centrale Paris first competed on the eurofootballfives.com stage at the 2011 Budapest Fives   where they made quite an impact with both their squads finishing second in their group behind strong local Hungarian teams. The Cup Quarter-Finals saw both squads go out with the A team losing 1-0 to Olympic Phil Babb (who have won all 4 tournaments they've played in) and the B team losing 3-1 to Csabagyongye who were only seconds away from knocking Olympic Phil Babb out in the subsequent Cup Semi-Final.

Bede FC made their debut in the 2011 Barcelona Fives and picked up a first European victory with a 2-1 victory over eventual Plate Winners, Bristol Bridge. Other results did not quite go their way and did not reward their performances as they were unlucky to finish 5th on goal difference – going through to the Wooden Spoon Semi-Finals before going down to Stamford AC.

It was first blood to France in this fixture as Marc Hochar scored the opening goal of the game. He then made it 2-0 before captain Guilhem Charlet made it 3-0 before the break. The second half was more sedate but there was time for Diego Cammarano to make it 4-0 and complete the victory.

The French had got off to the perfect start. Aston Carter would hope things would get easier and they had 3 more group games to make their mark in the tournament.

Game 2 of Group A saw some familiar friends and faces in the form of Dark Horses and Parry St Germain. Dark Horses made their eurofootballfives debut in the 2010 Amsterdam Fives where they claimed success at the first attempt when they lifted the Plate Trophy. They followed this up with an appearance at the 2011 Prague Masters where they started slowly losing 2-0 to Czech side FC Xaverov and 3-0 to CIS of Belarus. They recovered in superb style winning their next three 6-1 v Norton Old Boys (Eng), 3-0 v Saipan FC (Ire) and 6-0 v Zizkov Drunks (Cze). The run of form earned them Cup qualification whereby a quirk of fate meant they drew CIS again where they enacted their revenge with a 2-1 Golden Goal victory. A superb performance against 2010 Prague Trophy winners Deportivo resulted in a 2-2 draw – the dreaded penalty shoot-out meant they missed out on a first Cup Final.

Parry St Germain (Eng) make a 3rd eurofootballfives.com appearance after debut in the October 2007 Prague Trophy. Back in Prague they entered 3 teams under the names of England Lions, Brazil United and We Are Messi. The latter two squads reaching the Plate and Cup Semi-Finals respectively. They followed this up with 2 squads at the 2011 Barcelona Fives under the names of Preston Youth and Preston OAPs. The OAPs won their 5-team group (which included 2009 winners Rapid Bosco Navas) before a Quarter-Final defeat to eventual winners Equipo A of Spain whilst the Youth team reached the Plate Semi-Finals.

So, a pretty tough game on paper and so it proved on the field of play with little between the two teams. Dark Horses opened the scoring through Richard Walker and they held the advantage going into the break. In the second half Parry St Germain pulled level through Paul Hurden. There was still time for a winner and it was Hurden again who sealed the points with a 2-1 victory.

The final team to begin their Group A challenge was the local team Maritimo FC – or at least it would be if they weren't delayed en route to the ground. They therefore had to forfeit the tie and handed a 3-0 win to CFC A.

In Game 4, Bede FC and Dark Horses took to the field for the second time with both teams looking for a win and their first points of the day. Who could bounce back and respond in the best possible manner?

Early on it looked like the Dark Horses as they quickly established a 3-0 lead through Aled Bryon, Richard Walker and the Bryon again. A second half comeback from Bede FC reduced the deficit spearheaded by captain Troy Grant with two goals. The Dark Horses had enough in reserve though and completed a 4-2 win. The fourth goal was notable in the sense that it was scored by John Collins – his first goal in three eurofootballfives.com tournaments.

The next game was due to be Parry St Germain versus Maritimo FC but we had further news from the local team. They were still delayed due to their team van breaking down and would not reach the tournament venue in time for the group phase so were forced to withdraw. Parry St Germain took a 3-0 victory.