Group B kicked off with Galacticos of Portugal versus Saipan FC representing Ireland. Both teams were familiar to eurofootballfives.com competition.

Galacticos made their first eurofootballfives.com appearance at the 2014 Algarve Open. They had a group record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats which saw them finish third and qualify for the Plate competition. They were less successful in the Semi-Finals as Far Out FC accounted for them, 2-0. Their 2015 Algarve Open group record was the same (2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats) which was good enough for Cup qualification this time. They drew their Quarter-Final,1-1, with Why Always Morris? before a 5-4 defeat in a penalty shoot-out.

Saipan FC were the second most capped team in the tournament draw as they were making their 7th appearance across our tournaments in Europe and were looking for their second tournament victory after winning the 2015 Mallorca Tournament.

It was honours even at half-time with the teams locked together at 0-0. The second half did yield a winner and it was Saipan FC's Spanish forward Nacho Monales who provided the decisive blow. It took Saipan FC's unbeaten record in our tournaments to 9 games and they were off to a great start here in Portugal.

Next up was RC Lens against NVA. RC Lens made their debut in eurofootballfives.com competition here at the Algarve Open last year. They made quite an impact winning Group B with a 100% record – 5 wins out of 5. They won their Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals both by a score of 2-0 to set-up a debut Cup Final. It proved to be one game too far as they missed out on the title to Futeboladas. They were expected be a team to watch in the 2016 tournament and they lived up to their billing here.

NVA were making their debut in eurofootballfives.com tournament action and it would be quite a baptism of fire against such illustrious opposition. RC Lens established their dominance of the game in terms of possession as we saw so often last year and they were rewarded with two goals in the first half from Josh Hart and Kieran Turner.

The second half kicked off at 2-0 and whilst the pattern of the game continued there was to be no addition to the score until the end. David O'Connor in the RC Lens goal was employing the sweeper keeper tactic but he lost possession on the half-way line towards the end and was punished in style. James Whatman pounced with what would be one of the finishes of the tournament as he hooked the ball home – great instinct, great accuracy, great goal.

The goal would merely be a consolation goal though as RC Lens won 2-1.

The final team to begin their 2016 Algarve Open campaign would be Trilution – the sister club of Mini FC in Group A. Mini FC had started well, could Trilution follow in their footsteps?

Their opponents would be Galacticos who had already warmed up with a game under their belts although they had lost it 1-0. The game started off pretty even but as we reached half-time Galacticos began to exert some dominance on proceedings. We reached half-time level at 0-0 though.

After half-time the pattern continued with Galacticos on top but it was still 0-0. Galacticos were paying the price for some wayward finishing. As the second half progressed Trilution grew into the game and they forced a number of free-kicks on the edge of the area but were unable to make any count.

As we looked like heading for a draw we were to see a winner. The goal game from Telmo who scored Galacticos's first goal of the day and earned his team a vital 3 points.

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The next game promised to be a heavyweight contest with 9-games unbeaten Saipan FC meeting last year's runners-up RC Lens who had just the 1 defeat in 9 eurofootballfives.com fixtures. Both teams had started off with a victory today.

It was RC Lens who assumed control from the early stages and they dominated possession. As one of the Saipan FC players commented after the game, the RC Lens team was arguably the most technically proficient he had seen in eurofootballfives.com tournaments. They were putting that technique to good use and went into half-time 1-0 up thanks to Luke O'Nien's goal.

In the second half, RC Lens eased away from their opponents to go 3-0 up thanks to a double from Kieran Turner. Turner had scored 5 last year and already had 3 goals to his name today. The sweeper keeper tactic was again in use from RC Lens which was paying dividends in them dominating possession, controlling games and providing the extra man going forward but it did cost them a goal in their first game and would do so again here – although fortunately would not cost them in terms of claiming victory. Barry Lysaght was the man to capitalise on this occasion with his first captain's goal of the day for Saipan FC. Final score, 3-1.

The game that would take us to the mid stage of Group B was NVA versus Trilution. Both teams had suffered similar fates in their opening fixture – defeat by the odd goal. Which team could bounce back best and kickstart their tournament challenge?

There was an early goal in this one and it would go the way of the Portuguese team. Ben Brouner in the N.V.A goal made a good early save but fortune favoured the locally based team as the rebound dropped to Miguel Cima who turned it home. This early strike was the only thing that separated the two teams as the rest of the half was pretty even. It was 1-0 at the break.

That also proved to be the case in the second half with little to separate the two teams. That goal in the bank for Trilution allowed them not to chase the game too much and they could afford to be that little bit more defensive. NVA did all they could to find an equaliser but, alas for them, it was to be elusive. It was tough on NVA who slipped to a second successive defeat by the odd goal. They were very competitive so far but had nothing to show in terms of points on the board for their efforts on the field.