The 2015 Barcelona Fives was our 11 th 5-a-side football tournament in this great city. It was our joint largest ever single tournament with a line-up of 25 teams set to do battle. It was the third straight year we'd had 25-teams as this event remains a firm favourite in the calendar. There were 15 teams returning to eurofootballfives.com action and 10 making a debut on our circuit.

We kicked off with Spain's Naranjitos versus England's North London with the latter on debut.

Naranjitos debuted themselves at the 2014 Valencia Fives. That day they started off slowly with a 3-2 defeat before bouncing back with 7-1 and 4-2 wins before a 2-2 draw saw them finish 3rd. They qualified for the Cup as one of the best 3rd placed teams but went out at the Quarter-Final stage, 5-3, to the eventual winners – Sparta. At the 2014 Barcelona Fives and the 2015 Budapest Fives there was success for Naranjitos as they won the Plate competition at both events. They make the journey from Valencia again to compete in the 2015 Barcelona Fives and look for a hat-trick of victories.

With this match underway there was little to choose between the two teams in the opening half of football and when the half-time whistle blown we were still looking for our opening goal. It was then new boys who got off to a flyer as Pani Constantinides struck North London's first goal in Europe.

The goal kicked off a goal frenzy as they flew in at each end - Vass Constantinides and Pele Bell added to the tally for North London, Adrian Rodriguez Ortega and Jose Luis Cortes were on target for Naranjitos. It was North London who ended up on top, 3-2.

Next up was Drunk Perfect of Spain versus England's Saladmode FC. For the second time it was an experienced Spanish side versus an English debutant.

Drunk Perfect are a multinational team all residing in Barcelona who made their debut in the 2011 Barca Fives. 3rd place in their group behind England's El A Dees and Japan's Samurai Japan earned them a place in the Cup as one of the highest finishing 3rd placed teams. Eventual champions Midshires FC ended their run in the Cup Quarter-Finals, 2-0. They returned in 2012 and also finished 3 rd in the group before going out to Barley FC 3-1 in the Plate Quarter-Finals. At the 2013 Barcelona Fives they started slowly in Group E before finishing with a 7-2 victory as they qualified for the Trophy. In the Quarter-Finals their form continued with a 6-0 win over ADP Royals and a 4-2 Semi-Final win over Rapid Bosco Navas. They drew the Trophy Final 1-1 with Deportivo Dooradoyle of Ireland but had to settle for Runners-Up medals with Dooradoyle winning 2-1 on penalties.

It was the home side who enjoyed the better of the early exchanges as they entered the break 3-1 to the good at half-time. Giovanni Galle, Yannick Michiels and Miguel Camacho were all on the mark for the Spanish but a Peter Rowe goal kept Saladmode FC in the hunt. A Damien Legal goal probably ended hopes of a comeback to make it 4-1 before Dimitri Hubert wrapped up the 5-1 victory.

Next up was FC Seagrave (Eng) versus Naranjitos (Spa).

FC Seagrave were making a welcome return to eurofootballfives.com action after they played at the 2010 Algarve Open. They made a fine debut in Portugal and were unbeaten in the group phase with 2 wins and 2 draws. They qualified for the Cup and won their Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals both 2-0 before meeting Dutch team Athletico Do Hollande in the Final. Athletico Do Hollande (who now have 3 eurofootballfives.com titles) won it – can FC Seagrave go one step further in Barcelona?

Naranjitos already had a game under their belts (and three points) and maybe they had the advantage of being a bit more warmed up than their opponents – if they did it did not show as both teams were competitive and closely matched in the first half. We reached the change of ends with the scores still level at 0-0.

The second half was equally as close and ultimately it would be just the goal that would decide this fixture. Jose Luis Cortes was the man to score it with his second goal in as many games. The strike ensured that Naranjitos would successfully bounce back from opening game defeat and claim the win.

FC Seagrave would go into their second fixture hoping they could emulate Naranjitos and bounce back with a win.

Everyone in Group A was now up and running with a game under their belts. We now had two sides meeting in Game 4 looking to build on their first win of the day. North London had edged out Naranjitos 3-2 whilst Drunk Perfect had swept to a convincing 5-1 win. Could either of these teams kick-on and get an all important victory that would put them in charge of Group A?

With 11 goals in the 2 games featuring these two teams we were hoping for more of the same in terms of goals and we were not disappointed. There were 3 more goals to enjoy in the first half alone and it was North London who lead at the break, 2-1, over their local hosts.

The next goal of this game was likely to be crucial – if Drunk Perfect could claim it the game would be back in the balance but if North London could score it they would have a two goal cushion and be heading to sole custody of top spot in the group table. It was North London who claimed it and they scored not once but twice in the second half to wrap up a fine victory. Goals from Jacob Christie (2), Vass Constantinides and Pani Constantinides set them on their way. Yannick Michiels first half goal would ultimately prove to be a mere consolation.

In the next game we had Saladmode FC and FC Seagrave looking for their first victory of the day. If either team could claim the win they would move on to 3 points and make it a 3-team tie in second place in Group A. Despite the early setback these teams had experienced in their first game there was still very much to play for if they could bounce back quickly.

The first half came and went with little to choose between the two teams and there was certainly nothing to separate them in terms of goals. It was the second time in as many games that FC Seagrave had gone in 0-0 at the break and, sadly for them, it was to be groundhog day. In their first fixture they slipped from 0-0 to a 1-0 defeat in the second half against Naranjitos and history was to repeat itself as Saladmode FC inflicted a second half defeat this time – by the same score of 1-0. Liam Porter scoring Saladmode FC's second goal of the tournament and one that would earn all three points for his team.

Saladmode FC were very much back in the mix in Group A. For FC Seagrave, they would have a tough job qualifying for the Cup but there would still be a lot more football for them to enjoy today.