The referee blew the whistle to kick us off in what was going to be a really tough match to call. If you look at the two teams records then they were very closely matched. Esparta wrestled the ascendency in the early stages and capitalized with two first half goals. Aretz Alala and David Hernandez both on target for the Spanish team wearing black shirts. It was going to be key for Dream Team to be at their best defensively and keep Esparta out for as long as possible and to avoid falling further behind. Then, if possible they would need to try and get a goal back before half-time to make it game on after the break.

The second half kicked off with Dream Team needing a couple of goals to force this into a penalty shoot-out – certainly not impossible. They had to score the next goal though and they did. It is perhaps no surprise that the goal came from Jose Martinez Martinez and was his tenth of the tournament. As much as they tried Dream Team were unable to find the equalizing goal. Esparta managed to see the game out and left the field as champions.

We would like to congratulate Dream Team on an excellent performance over the course of the tournament and commiserations on missing out in the Cup Final. They would collect runners-up medals in the presentation.

The individual honour of the day was a close-run thing. Mike Brandon (FC Mahou) and Jose Martinez Martinez (Dream Team) both finished on 10 goals. Mike Brandon edged out his rival on countback – he had played in one less game. Many congratulations to Mike Brandon who wins his third golden boot award after winning the equivalent trophy at the 2013 Algarve Open & 2018 Algarve Veterans Tournament.

Congratulations to Esparta - they became the sixth team to claim glory at the summer eurofootballfives.com Veterans Tournament and the first winners of the event in Alicante. The Veterans Tournament will soon be scheduled for 2020 and we hope you can all join us next year.