The Trophy (our third tier competition) Quarter-Finals would kick-off the knock-out phase of the 2014 Barcelona Fives. We began with El Combe Old Boys versus ACE & The Swagmen.

El Combe Old Boys would certainly be favourites for a number of reasons – they qualified for the Cup this time last year, they had a Plate victory under their belts at the 2010 Algarve Open, they had the best defence of all the teams in the Trophy with just 5 goals conceded, they had the best goal difference of all the teams in the Trophy at -2, they only lost once in the group phase and were the highest ranked of all the Trophy qualifiers.

Therefore, a game against the lowest ranked team in the group phase, ACE & The Swagmen, looked a formality. However, this was largely due to a 10-1 loss against Monexy that skewed the facts. The truth was ACE & The Swagmen were an improving side and only lost 2-1 to Los Swallacticos….a team El Combe Old Boys lost 3-1 to last year.

The lunch break may have halted that momentum for ACE & The Swagmen though as El Combe Old Boys ended up surging to a 3-0 lead at half-time. By full-time the score was 5-0 and El Combe Old Boys were looking a class above Trophy level. Goals came from Gareth Warren, Alan Ritchie, Andrew Hampshire (2) and Matt Hall.

Pitch B played host to the 2nd Trophy Quarter-Final between Bayer Own Beer and Notlob FC. Bayer Own Beer came into the game as the highest scoring team in the group phase of all the teams that had qualified for the Trophy. They had an impressive return of 10 goals from their 4 games. Notlob FC had suffered four defeats to date and now would be the perfect time to turn their form around.

Bayer Own Beer continued their goal scoring form from the group phase and they had three more to add to their tally in the opening period. Their Achilles heel to date had been at the back and Notlob FC took full advantage to stay in touching distance of their opponents at just 3-2 down at the break.

In the second half the goal-scoring party continued for both teams but Bayer Own Beer had the greater firepower. The final score was 6-3 and Bayer Own Beer advanced to the Semi-Finals. It was the twin-pronged attack of Ollie Clarke and Aaron Turner who scored 4 and 2 in this game respectively that saw their safe passage to the next round.

For Notlob FC they can consider themselves unfortunate to have scored three (Gianluca Petri, Richard Claxton, Mat Bowman) and still go out. It was game over for the day but they still had their sister squad, The Matt-Adors, to cheer on in the Plate competition.

Trophy Quarter-Final 3 would see SV Zoo meet Peebles All Stars. In their 3 previous knock-out phases SV Zoo had qualified for the Plate on all 3 occasions so they would be one of the fancied teams in the Trophy draw. In their 3 Quarter-Finals they had won twice (Krakow 2012, Berlin 2013) and drawn once (Berlin 2014) before going out on penalties. If they could keep that undefeated (in normal time) record going they would have a Semi-Final to look forward to.

Peebles All Stars came into the game as the second best 5 th place team in the tournament and, although they had a draw to their name, would be looking for their first win in Europe to keep their day going on the pitch.

SV Zoo was one of just two teams in the Trophy who had a victory under their belt in the group phase and would arguably start the game as favourites. The German team lived up to that billing and secured a 3-1 victory. Stefan Ruff and Stefan Fricke-Liebig (2) scored the goals that sent their team through. Peter Walker scored his first goal and his team's third goal of the day for the Scottish side.

The day was over for Peebles All Stars – on the field at least. They were off to the Camp Nou that evening to watch Barcelona play Eibar to cap a superb footballing weekend in the Catalan capital. Thank you for making the trip to Barcelona – it was a pleasure to host you.

Who would meet SV Zoo in the Trophy Semi-Finals? Fifty Shades of O'Shea and AFC EX-UEA would do battle for the honour. In theory this should be a close Quarter-Final as it was the 5th best 4th placed team versus the best 5th place team.

Fifty Shades of O'Shea was one of just two teams in the Trophy who had a victory under their belt in the group phase so would probably start as favourites compared to AFC EX-UEA who had a draw to their name. AFC EX-UEA had not been outclassed in the group phase though with some very narrow defeats (including 2-1 to Liverpool Central and 1-0 to Csabagyongye who both qualified for the Cup).

With the game underway, it was AFC EX-UEA who showed that results hadn't quite lived up to their performances so far today and they had found the perfect time to pull their first win out of the bag. It was all but over at half-time as the English team had raced into a 3-0 lead by the break.

In the second half Patrick Moran got a goal back for Ireland's Fifty Shades of O'Shea but it was to be his team's last of the day. Further goals for AFC EX-UEA meant they ran out 5-1 victors with the goals shared around – Sam Thrippleton (2), Georgie Danby (2) and Oliver Kisby.

AFC EX-UEA were through. Fifty Shades of O'Shea were out but there was still interest in the tournament for the Chris Kelly stag group as their other team, Balotellitubbies, were due on shortly in the Plate Quarter-Finals.