We arrived at the Plate Quarter-Final stage and we would shortly see eight teams reduced to four teams. Lacey Green FC would meet Club Tropicana Drinks of FC. The pre-determined draw meant the 3rd best 3rd placed team would meet the best 6th placed team with the former being Lacey Green FC who would be favourites going into this game.

In a strange twist of fate the two teams had met earlier in the day in Group A. It was Lacey Green who emerged victorious in the previous encounter as they ran out 2-0 victors. A repeat would do them just fine. Ed Suggate scored in that game and he was on the mark again as he fired Lacey Green FC into a 1-0 lead.

After the break history was repeating itself as Lacey Green went 2-0 up again. The team in green were not finished there as they added a third and fourth goal for good measure as they swept into the Semi-Finals. Suggate was on target again as was Steve Evans and Henry Craven.

Sadly, it was the end of the day for Club Tropicana Drinks FC (on the pitch anyway). It was a below par performance from them compared to their previous eurofootballfives.com adventures. Hopefully we will see them on tour again in the future and they'll be back to their best.

The second Semi-Final saw AFC Shooters A take on The Depo Legends as 4th place from Group A would take on 5th Place from Group B.

AFC Shooters A would undoubtedly be favourites for this game as they had only lost one game thus far today. The reason they were probably not playing in the Cup was due to too many draws stunting their progress up the group table. They had been solid in defence (just the 2 conceded) but if they could be a bit more clinical at the other end they could well go home with the Plate trophy.

Depo Legends had experienced a tough start to the morning but their form had picked up towards the end of the group stage as they took 4 points from the final 6 available with a 1-0 win and then a 1-1 draw against the 3rd placed side in their group. There had already been a Depo v Shooters contest today in Group C as these two sides sister squads had played each other – AFC Shooters B defeating Depo Originals 1-0.

It was 1-0 to AFC Shooters here again as the A team scored through Steve Comber. It was 1-0 at half-time and Depo Legends had it all to do. They had it all to do and more when Steve Comber made it 2-0 in the second half. He then capped a fine personal display to claim the match ball (metaphorically) as he completed his hat-trick. Final score, 3-0.

As we have seen above AFC Shooters A were progressing to the Semi-Finals and now it was the turn of their B team to try and join them in the final four. Their opponents would be Mavericks.

Mavericks came into the game as slight favourites due to a higher placed finish in their group, a higher points tally, better goal difference, more goals scored but they had conceded more. Mavericks had won their opening two games but lost the last 3 so would need to bounce back here. AFC Shooters B had a similar trajectory in form winning early and seeing results tail off.

It was Mavericks who broke the deadlock in the opening period of play as Mark Adamson notched his third goal of the day. It was advantage Mavericks at the break but that was to change when Chris Kane restored parity for AFC Shooters B. That's how it finished in normal time but there was still much more to come in this came in the form of a penalty shoot-out.

The first penalties were converted by each side with Sam Russell and Gez Medinger getting their teams off to a positive start. A missed penalty each followed as we went into the final spot-kick each level at 1-1. Mavericks scored theirs through Adam Cartwright but sadly for AFC Shooters B Oliver Gray was unable to do the same and it was Mavericks who would advance to the Semi-Finals.

Three Quarter-Finals down, one to go as Skidmarks would play Kazakhstan FC. Skidmarks were in unfamiliar territory playing in the Plate for the first time after 5 successive Cup appearances. For a team so used to Cup qualification this was a particularly tough task mentally as often teams can struggle with the disappointment of not making the Cup and see their form unravel. There is no better example than that of Olympic Phil Babb who won their first four tournaments in our competitions before failing to qualify for the Cup in their fifth outing at the 2012 Mallorca Tournament. In their Plate Quarter-Final they crashed out to a team they would usually have beaten comfortably.

Skidmarks had a much tougher opponent in the form of Kazakhstan FC than Olympic Phil Babb had back in Mallorca 2012. Kazakhstan FC have traditionally been on the cusp of Cup/Plate qualification with 2 Cup and 2 Plate appearances before today.

The game was a good contest in the first half and it was a Neil Taylor goal for Skidmarks that divided the teams when they changed ends at half-time. After the break Skidmarks moved through the gears as Gary Hatfield, Luke Hatfield (2) and Ashley Britten all scored in a ruthless 5-0 victory.

For Kazakhstan FC their involvement was over in 2015. Rumours suggest they could join us in Prague 2016 and it would be our sincere pleasure to see them again if that does indeed prove to be the case.