From the 25 original teams we were down to the final four with just teams from England, Northern Ireland and Ukraine remaining.

The first Cup Semi-Final would be contested by Los Swallacticos and Tinniedad & Tobacco. The two teams had enjoyed a successful day so far and if they could grab one more victory they had a European Cup Final to look forward to. Los Swallacticos had put opening game defeat behind them to win four games in a row. Tinniedad & Tobacco were still unbeaten with four wins and a draw to their name.

It was Tinniedad & Tobacco who drew first blood in this contest as Will Boulton put his team ahead. It was a lead they were to maintain for a good portion of the match and it looked like it would be enough to earn them a place in the Cup Final. That was until two minutes from the end when they conceded a penalty and up stepped Ruairi O'Neill. With a tally of 7 goals already today it looked odds on Los Swallacticos would be level but he was unable to convert and it remained 1-0. Could Los Swallacticos put in one more effort to keep the day going and avoid leaving the competition?

They could and in the dying embers of the game Ruairi O'Neill put the penalty miss behind him by scoring a last gasp equalizer. There was no time for Tinniedad & Tobacco to respond and the game finished 1-1. A penalty shoot-out would ensue.

The first four penalties were all converted - Jon Mckinley and Michael Wilkes for Tinniedad & Tobacco, Michael Mccourt and Deaghlan O Hagan for Los Swallacticos. The final round of penalties saw the match decided though with Ruairi O'Neill scoring where Oliver Jackson couldn't. It was an amazing turnaround of fortunes for O'Neill who had shown great character after the miss in normal time.

It was time to bid farewell on the day to Tinniedad & Tobacco – a sensational debut. Los Swallacticos were honourable enough to say they had “robbed” the English team. Tinniedad & Tobacco finished with the best defence in the tournament with only 3 goals conceded in 6 games. If only they could have held on for a few more seconds….what might have been! The lads have already booked for the 2015 Berlin Fives and they will surely be one of the contenders in Germany.

The second Semi-Final promised to be an intriguing clash between Liverpool Central and Monexy. Liverpool Central had returned to winning ways against Prospe FC in the Quarter-Finals and had 4 wins out of 5 to their name. Monexy were still unbeaten and the only team still left in the tournament with a 100% record

This was the furthest Liverpool Central had gone in our tournaments beating their Cup Quarter-Final in the 2012 Budapest Fives. Amongst their ranks though they did have Chris Williams who had won two tournaments with Goldsmith Williams (2008 Prague Masters, 2010 Amsterdam Fives) and had reached the Cup Final here in Barcelona back in 2009. If he could bring that experience to the rest of his team maybe a Cup Final would await Liverpool Central.

Monexy were imposing opposition though with 21 goals scored and just 2 conceded so far. At the end of the first half that record read 22 goals scored and just 2 conceded due to Volodymyr Fenenko's fifth goal of the tournament. Could Liverpool Central respond?

The English team performed admirably to try and get back into it and in the second half Ryan Crook's 4 th goal of the tournament was a start but it was outshone by Volodymyr Fenenko's second of the game and a strike from Yurii Tsymbal as Monexy completed a 3-1 win.

It was a game too far for Liverpool Central but it was certainly their best performance of their three in eurofootballfives.com competition.

Monexy had a Cup Final to prepare for…