Group B began with one established teams on the eurofootballfives.com circuit against one team making its European bow. It was Dickie Dogs versus The Warriors.

Dickie Dogs made an impressive debut in the 2010 Valencia Fives where they claimed the Group C title with an undefeated record of 3 wins and 1 draw. They then came undone against tournament runners-up, Galacticos, in the Cup Quarter-Finals. They followed this-up playing in the 2012 Budapest Fives were they said farewell at the Plate Quarter-Finals stage losing out to eventual winners, Csabagyongye of Hungary (who also won the Cup at the 2015 Budapest Fives). Dickie Dogs were part of the inaugural Lisbon Veterans Tournament in 2013 and finished joint 5 th in the group table. A year later in the 2014 Mallorca Tournament they finished 3 rd in Group A and went through to the Plate Final missing out on the victory narrowly (2-1) to Eagles 3:36.

The extra experience of the Dickie Dogs proved to be to no avail as the Warriors won the contest by the narrowest of margins, 1-0. Melvin Witt scored the goal meaning it was played one, won one in Europe for The Warriors.

Match 2 saw Sergio Cristina take on Westfield Wanderers.

Westfield Wanderers made their eurofootballfives.com debut at the 2014 Mallorca Veterans Tournament. They started slowly with a 3-1 defeat against Policia Vets before 3 successive wins to finish the group in 2nd position. They met The Blackouts of Ireland in the Cup Semi-Finals and went down 5-1. Could they go one step further in the Algarve?

They started well against the team from the host nation and we reached the break with the teams level at 0-0. It's an old cliché that goals change games and, beyond stating the obvious, it does. Sergio Cristina bagged the first goal of the game through Nelson Rodrigues. Westfield Wanderers had to come out in search of the equaliser and they were hit by Telmo Silva who made it 2-0. That's how it finished with the home side claiming all three points.

The final teams in Group B to start their challenge were The Blackouts versus Water Boy. This was a real heavyweight contest for these teams to open their campaign. The Blackouts were Runners-up in the 2014 Mallorca Veterans Tournament and Water Boy were Runners-up here at the 2014 Algarve Open.

Water Boy would ordinarily be one of the favourites for this tournament but they had played in the Open Age tournament already today and we wondered if that may take its toll. The Blackouts were fresh as a daisy in footballing terms but had had an early start flying in from Ireland on the morning of the tournament.

As we might have expected from these two heavyweights we found ourselves at half-time locked together at 0-0. In the second period it was The Blackouts who struck the first blow with captain Shane Cox finding the net. He capped a true captain's performance by grabbing a second and making the game safe. The Blackouts were off and running for their tournament challenge.