Group B kicked off with Spain versus Ireland as Futbol 7 took on Saipan FC. Futbol 7 (Spa) were making their second appearance in the 2012 Barcelona Fives having played in the 2011 Barca Fives in November. In a really tough group, featuring 2009 Barca Fives Champions Luminy Wolves of France and 2011 Runners-Up FC Miracle of Hungary, they finished 3rd. Luminy Wolves then defeated them in the Cup Quarter-Finals.

Saipan FC (Ire) of Ireland made their debut in the 2011 Prague Masters and they too had a tough group finishing 4th behind CIS (Belarus), FC Xaverov (Czech Rep) and Dark Horses (Eng) with the latter two going on to the Cup Semi-Finals. Saipan FC went into the Plate tournament draw where they would make the Final and suffer heartache to an extra time golden goal to Wafty Crankers.

On paper this was a very close pairing and we were expecting a narrow win either way. What followed was a big win to the travelling team as Julian Cornelius put Saipan FC on their way. Two goals for Agus Benedito Galmes made it 3-0 by half-time and by full time it was 5-0 thanks to additional strikes from Aonghus McCarthy and Albert Llussa.

Saipan FC had lay down a marker – they were in Barcelona to win!

Budapest Celtic made their debut in the 2011 Budapest Fives with two squads. For the Barcelona challenge they brought 3 teams to challenge and that third squad was the Budapest Celtic Pumas. They would begin their campaign against Stagatasaray who made their debut in last year's tournament (as San Torrei Stags) and drew arguably the group of death which featured French 2009 Barca Fives winners Luminy Wolves and 2011 eventual champions Equipo A. They still managed to finish 3rd in their group before a defeat to Irish team Intermore FC in the Plate Quarter-Finals.

It would be interesting to see how this one would turn out. With the game underway it was the Pumas who struck first through Argentine striker Luiz Naufel. The Pumas had the advantage and it was Naufel again who doubled that advantage before the break as the Magyar team led 2-0.

Unfortunately for Stagatasaray it was the Luiz Naufel show as he continued to find the net. His shooting boots were on fire as he made it 3-0, 4-0 and then 5-0. Chris Lapierre-Hamill chipped in to make it 6-0 and the Pumas were on their way. It was a tough start for Stagatasaray.

Kazbar FC were the final team to get their campaign started when they took on Futbol 7. Kazbar FC were the second squad of Kazakhstan FC who entered eurofootballfives.com competition for the first time in November 2011's Barca Fives. Having drawn a tough group with Midshires FC and Rapid Bosco Navas they finished 3 rd and narrowly missed out on Cup qualification. They played in the Plate and went on to make the final before finishing runners-up to HMS Sultan FC. How would their second squad fare?

Pretty well was the answer in a first half that showed nothing between the two teams. At half-time they were level at 0-0. The pressure was on for Futbol 7 as they were looking to turn things around after first game defeat. Another loss here would be a big dent in their Cup challenge.

When the referee blew the final whistle we were to see a victor by the odd goal in three and it was Futbol 7 who edged it 2-1 thanks to goals from Jordi Jimenez Puyol and Xavi Garcia Osborne. It was a good opening performance from Kazbar FC who saw Azhar Abid open their account. They would need to turn performance into points in their three ensuing group games.

Game 4 saw Saipan FC meet Stagatasaray. We were keen to see Saipan FC after their big first win and see if they could build on it. Stagatasaray in contrast were looking to bounce back from their defeat to Budapest Celtic Pumas.

Stagatasaray matched their opponents for long periods in this game but - as in many games, goals change the course of games and it did in this one. The first goal proved vital as it so often does. Barry Lysaght's strike gave Saipan FC the advantage and after that Julian Cornelius capitalized with a hat-trick to turn 1-0 into 4-0. It was a great win for Saipan FC who were sitting pretty on top of Group B. For Stagatasaray they had come up against two in form teams with two games to go.

Game 5 saw Budapest Celtic Pumas take on Kazbar FC. It was a similar match preview to the last fixture with the Pumas looking to build on a big win with the ‘away' team looking to bounce back from defeat.

The game followed a similar pattern too with a close first half whereby the teams were split by just the one goal. That goal was scored by opening game hero Luiz Naufel for his 6 th of the tournament already. He was staking an early claim for top goalscorer and player of the tournament already – could Kazbar FC shackle him?

Well, in a word, no. Naufel added a second goal after the break and went on to complete a hat-trick for his 8 th goal in 2 games – utterly brilliant. It was his goals that fired the Pumas to the top of the Group B table. Kazbar FC were left in 4 th place but still much to play for.