Albufeira 5-a-side football tournament Semi Finals in 2013 Algarve Open Cup

Results

CFC (Fra)	2	V	0	Sergio Cristina (Por)
Bafta Boys (Eng)	0	V	1	FC Radbroke (Eng)

The first Semi-Final would see CFC of France take on Sergio Cristina of Portugal. The French team were unbeaten to date and yet to concede in the tournament but goals were hard to come by and their last 3 games had finished 0-0 in normal time.

Sergio Cristina had reached this stage with a sensational penalty shoot-out win against Galacticos. These two teams had met before in the group stage and it finished 0-0….the start of the CFC goal drought.

It was perhaps no surprise then that we reached half-time at 0-0. There was nothing to separate the two teams in the group and there was very little between the teams in this Semi-Final. It was 0-0 for a long time but the French team broke the deadlock midway through the second half as Nicolas Granier put his side ahead. We're not sure if Paris buses are the same as London buses but it seemed so because as soon as we had one goal another followed through Antoine Creux who had now scored in the Quarter-Finals and the Semi-Finals.

The game finished 2-0 and it was CFC who had progressed to the Cup Final. Sergio Cristina were out but like all our debut Portuguese teams this season were a welcome addition to the Algarve Open and our tour. They played the game in a great spirit and it was a joy to watch.

The second Cup Semi-Final was between Bafta Boys and FC Radbroke. Bafta Boys were on a roll and on quite a run. This was their 14th game in eurofootballfives.com competition and they were still unbeaten in normal time. Only penalties had seen them unable to claim victory in the 2012 Berlin Fives where they exited at this level. They were bidding to go one step further in the Algarve.

FC Radbroke were in a Cup Semi-Final for the second time. They'd lost one (v Futbol City, 2010 Valencia Fives) and won one (FC Xaverov, 2011 Prague Masters). They tipped the win/loss Quarter-Final ratio in their favour in their last game and would hope to do the same in the Semi-Finals.

There was also the sub-plot of the Top Goalscorer charts where we had the tournaments current top 3 goalscorers all featuring in this game – Mike Brandon of FC Radbroke with 7 followed by Joe Bardwell (6) and Tom Lambourne (5) of Bafta Boys. We were level at 0-0 at half-time with none of the main marksmen able to add to their tally. In the second half that changed though as Mike Brandon moved onto 8 for the day.

Then came a pivotal moment of the game. The Bafta Boys goalkeeper Petrin Petrov was sent off for illegally stopping a counter attack when Mike Brandon was put through. Petrov had to bring Brandon down even though he was the last man. It was a foul outside the area and one-on-one. The referee had no option but to show Petrov the red card and to be fair there were no arguments. At 2-0 the Semi-Final would have been over. At 1-0 there was still a chance but with just 4 men left on the pitch it was going to be a tough tough ask. The resulting free kick went wide incidentally.

Stand in goalkeeper Pete Talbot then made a superb save not long after coming on as Pete Cox forced him into a great save pushing a strike from close range onto the bar. Bafta Boys were unable to find an equalizer and FC Radbroke were on the way to the Cup Final.

Mike Brandon was Top Goalscorer in waiting as he increased his own tally and his goal eliminated his two main challengers. Nice work!

The day was over for Bafta Boys at the Semi-Final stage for a second year in a row. We are sure they can go one step further on a different day and maybe next time? It could well be a curse of Berlin as the other losing Semi-Finalist in the 2012 Berlin Fives East Compton Eagles also made a Cup Semi-Final this year and also went out at this stage in the 2013 Mallorca Fives.

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