The next match in Group B was Esparta versus AC Motxo International. The latter were making their second and third appearances in our tournament today. The second in the Open Age competition and the third being in this Veterans tournament.

AC Motxo International made the journey from Madrid to Alicante today to compete. They made their debut at the 2018 Algarve Open. In the group phase of the tournament in the Algarve they produced 1 win and 3 draws from their campaign as they qualified for the Plate competition. In the Plate competition they found their form with a 2-0 Quarter-Final win over Real de Groot (Hol) and a win on penalties in the Semi-Final against Elbersiktas (Hol). In the Plate Final they beat Pique Blinders 1-0 to spark wild celebrations.

They so far had a defeat and a draw to their name in Group B and were about to face the league leaders. They performed better than anyone today (so far) against Esparta but they were unable to claim any points from the game.

A goal in each half from Juan Gomez Garcia settled it as Esparta marched on.

Mavericks were the final team to play their third fixture. They had 4 points from 6 and currently sat in third position. This was their game in hand against The Blackouts. If they could win it they would climb above their opponents with one more game to play and guarantee Cup qualification.

For The Blackouts, this was their last chance to put points on the board. If they could claim a win then they could secure Cup qualification for themselves. If the game was to end in a draw then Mavericks would have to win their final game to reach the Cup. If this game was a draw and Mavericks failed to win their final game then The Blackouts would qualify for the Cup at their expense. In some ways this was a “must not lose” game rather than a “must win” game.

The other thing to note was that Mavericks final game was against Esparta so no doubt they would want to secure their place in the Cup before that fixture. At half-time we were no nearer to knowing which of these teams would make the Cup – we were level at 0-0.

As with many of these games, the second half yielded goals. Just the one in this case and the match-winner was Grant Taylor of Mavericks. It was a great result Mavericks as they continued their unbeaten run and would qualify for the Cup.

8 games completed, 2 to go. Salv's Ancient Army would finish their group campaign against AC Motxo International. These two teams were in a straight shoot-out for the final Plate qualification place.

The winner of this game would claim it. The loser would be eliminated. If the game was to finish in a draw then AC Motxo would finish fourth and claim their place in the knock-out phase.

AC Motxo had already qualified for the Plate today in the Open Age category. They finished fifth of six teams in Group A (the top four finished joint top on 10 points each). They then defeated Turn Down For Watford 3-2 in the Quarter-Finals before a narrow 2-1 defeat to 3x eurofootballfives.com winners L'Albiceleste of France.

It would be AC Motxo International's third Plate qualification in 3 attempts if they could do it. Things looked good as Ruben Torres Meijas scored two first half goals. Luis Ricardo Drenche Pulido also grabbed a goal for a 3-0 half-time lead. Pedro Valiente Tejeda added a fourth in the second half to seal the deal.

It was sadly elimination for Salv's Ancient Army but they faced a tough debut – they narrowly lost 1-0 to 2x Cup Finalists The Blackouts and narrowly 1-0 to The Mavericks who qualified for the Cup here. We hope to see them on tour again for another crack at European glory.

We went into Game 10 of Group C with Esparta due to host Mavericks. Let's have a look at what was at stake:

Esparta: Win and qualify for the Cup with a 100% record. They would win Group B and have a favourable Cup Semi-Final draw against the runners-up in Group A (although still not an easy tie)

Draw: Mavericks will have dented Esparta's 100% record and both teams will have finished the group phase unbeaten. Esparta would win Group B.

Mavericks: A Mavericks win would seem them climb above their opponents and win Group B. They will have ended Esparta's 100% record and become the first team to score against Esparta today.

Regardless of the result both teams had qualified for the Cup which was a fine achievement in itself.

Esparta had looked invincible so far today with 4-0, 6-0 and 2-0 wins. They went ahead again here thanks to a Manolo Teban goal. However, Mavericks were no pushovers and they equalized through Manish Madhvani. It was his second of the tournament and he became the first man today to score past Juan Vilar Ramos in the Esparta goal.

It was 1-1 at half-time and the second half was almost as tight. Just the one goal divided the two teams. It was Aretx Alala with the goal that won the game for Esparta. Congratulations to them for winning Group B.

Mavericks would finish in second place – their highest finish in the group phase of one of our veterans tournaments. Well done to them also.