It was fitting that the Algarve Open – often considered the jewel in the eurofootballfives.com – would be centre stage for eurofootballfives 50th tournament. We had a superb tournament to mark the half century in style.

The first two challengers to get us underway in Group A on Pitch A would be CFC (Fra) versus West Central FC (Eng). CFC 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. They followed this up by playing in the 2012 Algarve Open where their A team went all the way to the final but fell just short as they took the Runners-Up medals. Can they go one step further in 2013?

West Central FC were on debut so we would get our first look at them once the match got underway though. They were arguably the youngest team in the tournament and on a long day of tournament action this good well hold them in good stead.

There was little between the two teams in the opening exchanges and we reached half-time level at 0-0. In the end there was just one goal to separate the teams and it went the way of CFC and Guilhem Aulotte whose goal earned a 1-0 victory.

The French had got off to the perfect start. West Central FC would hope things would get easier and they had 4 more group games to make their mark in the tournament.

The final two teams in Group A were Sergio Cristina of Portugal and Hangover 96 of England. The Portuguese team were making their debut so we waited in anticipation to see how they would get on.

Hangover '96 were the second team from the Parry St Germain stable (who we would see in Group C). It was a 4th eurofootballfives.com appearance and 2nd Algarve Open 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. Last year in the Algarve they finished 2nd in their group behind the eventual Runners-Up before going out on penalties in the Quarter-Finals to Water Boy of Portugal.

It was the Portguese team who made the faster start as Telmo Silva opened his team's account in eurofootballfives.com competition. He went on to score a hat-trick and they were flying. Hangover 96 had the final word though with an Anthony Connolly wonder goal. He beat two men with some silky footwork and then from a tight angle on the right wing arrowed a goal into the far corner – it was the highlight of the game and one of the highlight's of the day. It drew cheers, applause and gasps of appreciation from all those watching. Even Sergio Cristina had to admire.