The 2014 Barcelona Fives Final would see Los Swallacticos play Monexy as Northern Ireland met Ukraine. Who was going to triumph? Let's preview the two teams;

Los Swallacticos

Los Swallacticos were bidding to become only the second team to retain a eurofootballfives.com title after Athletico Do Hollande's success at the 2010 and 2011 Algarve Open. If they could win it they would become the 10 th team to win multiple eurofootballfives.com titles and the fifth team to win their first two eurofootballfives.com tournaments after Olympic Phil Babb (Eng), Athletico Do Hollande (Hol), Skidmarks (Eng) and ABC United (Rom).

Incidentally, their route to the Cup Final in 2013 saw them with a record of Played 6, Won 5, Drawn 0, Lost 1. They had scored 14 goals and conceded 9.

This year that record went Played 6, Won 4, Drawn 1, Lost 1. They had scored 14 goals and conceded 7. Pretty similar.

Monexy

Monexy had played 6, Won 6, Drawn 0, Lost 0. They had scored 24 goals and conceded just 3 goals.

The two teams had met earlier in the day at the start of Group E and on that occasion Monexy had emerged as the victors, 2-0 (inflicting Los Swallacticos' only defeat of the day). From then on Monexy had looked the team to beat and if they could repeat the result from the earlier meeting it would be they who would take the coveted trophy home with them.

With the game underway it was Los Swallacticos who hit the front through Ruairi O'Neill with his 9 th goal of the tournament. Not only was it an important goal for his team and in the context of the tournament but it was an important goal in the context of the Top Goalscorer award. It took O'Neill on to 9 goals for the day and moved ahead of Aaron Turner (Bayer Own Beer) and James McCluskey (West One Three).

It was the first time today that Monexy had been behind. We had already seen how good Monexy were as front-runners so this would be a good opportunity to see how good they were at coming from behind. They responded well as Artem Illichov's seventh goal of the tournament equalized for Monexy before half-time.

With the scores level at the break we had one more half of football (and potentially penalties) to decide the destiny of the 2014 Barcelona Fives title. It was Los Swallacticos who hit the front again when Duncan MacAulay made it 2-1 in what could be a historic goal. It could have got even better for Los Swallacticos when Ruairi O'Neill was through on goal before being unceremoniously taken down by the Ukraine goalkeeper, Andrii Trosiuk, just outside the penalty area with the goal gaping. The referee got it right by giving a free-kick just outside the box but he got it wrong by not sending off the goalkeeper. The resulting free-kick was blocked and we remained at 2-1 when it could have been 3-1 (without the foul) or Los Swallacticos a man up had the red been given. Instead, Monexy were still at full strength and in with a chance.

Los Swallacticos were doing a pretty good job in seeing the game out and it came as a little bit of a surprise when Monexy made it 2-2 through Artem Illichov's eighth goal of the tournament. The momentum was with the Ukraine team now and they were cranking up the late pressure and that pressure told when Yurii Tsymbal became the hero for Monexy when he turned in the winner for 3-2.

Our commiserations go to Los Swallacticos for coming so close to a momentous and historic tournament win. We congratulate Monexy on a first Barcelona Fives title and we are sure it will not be their last! Looking at the stats for the tournament as a whole I don't think there can be any doubt the best team won – Monexy were the top scoring team in the tournament by 10 clear goals and the best goal difference in the tournament by 12 goals.

On a personal note, we would like to congratulate our Top Goalscorer, Ruairi O'Neill of Los Swallacticos, with a great return of 9 goals in 7 games.

We send our congratulations to all the teams who participated in what was a great day's competition. The tournament had everything and we look forward to seeing you all again very soon.