Group D kicked off with Carazur versus Elcombe Old Boys – at least it was supposed to. Carazur were delayed on their arrival to the ground and would be unable to fulfill their first fixture.

Elcombe Old Boys therefore picked up a 3-0 walkover victory.

Group D continued with Depo Legends (Ire) versus Legends of the Vale (Eng). The latter were making their @eurofootball5 bow. In contrast, Depo Legends are highly experienced in eurofootballfives.com tournaments.

Depo Legends (as Deportivo Dooradoyle) made their debut at the 2011 Amsterdam Fives. They reached the Plate Quarter-Finals with success over Goals Aloud (Wal). In the Semi-Finals they were victorious 3-1 over CEPL of Holland (who'd later become 2012 Amsterdam Fives winners) before a narrow defeat in the final to Rigford Seahawks (also 2009 Krakow Trophy & 2012 Berlin Fives Cup winners and 2009 Prague Trophy Plate winners). In the 2012 Algarve Open they drew a tough group and finished 4 th to make the Plate again. Their day ended against French side CFC B at the Quarter-Final stage on this occasion. In 2013, Barcelona was their destination of choice where they had a very successful day – they entered two teams and won both the Plate and Trophy competitions. Berlin was the destination of choice for 2014 and it was almost more success as they reached the Plate Final again. A tough fought 0-0 draw lead to a penalty shoot-out and Scandittack FC of Germany won the shoot-out 2-0. They have already competed this year at the 2015 Algarve Open where two injury ravaged squads finished 5th and 6th in their groups before a Wooden Spoon win and a Plate Quarter-Finals defeat. Could they return to glory in Barcelona?

They certainly started out as they meant business with a 7-0 victory – it was the biggest win of the tournament over the course of the day and a tough baptism of fire for the Legends of the Vale. Ger O'Loughlin (2), Thomas Kelleher (3) and Brian Kelleher (2) were all in the goals for Depo Legends.

Last but not least in Group D and it was Dynamo Fucdarest 2 to kick-off. They are playing in their fourth eurofootballfives.com tournament. On debut in the 2010 Prague Masters they went out on penalties to JNJ Global Services of the Czech Republic. In the 2011 Algarve Open they went one step further reaching the Plate Semi-Finals where they went out in one of the all-time eurofootballfives.com classics. It was penalties that proved to be their downfall again as Eagles UnAthletic knocked them out with over 100 spectators watching the drama unfold. Their third appearance was at the 2011 Valencia Fives where they found goals hard to come by but were generally solid – aside from a 5-0 defeat to the eventual champions there was two 0-0 draws and a narrow 1-0 loss to Bridge House. They finished 4th in their group to qualify for the Plate where they went out to the Plate winners, Kings Old Boys, by another narrow scoreline 2-1. They bring two teams to the 2015 Barcelona Fives.

Their opponents, Carazur, had now arrived at the venue and were ready to start although arriving late was hardly ideal preparation. This Dynamo Fucdarest squad was nominally their number 2 team but in terms of quality it looked to be their first team. They started off in fine style with a goal in each half to earn a solid 2-0 win thanks to goals from Raj Dhaliwal and Saaj Singh.

Elcombe Old Boys were returning to action for a third shot at the Barcelona Fives. They made a successful debut in the 2010 Algarve Open as Vodafone FC where they were drawn in the Group of Death and progressed to the final of the Plate competition. They emerged as worthy winners after a 3-2 victory. In the 2012 Mallorca Tournament, they entered two teams as Vodafone Rangers and Elcombe Old Boys. The latter finished 4 th in their 6 team group and played in the Plate competition but were unable to emulate 2010 glory as they went down 2-0 in the Semi-Finals. The 2013 Barcelona Fives was their best performance on the pitch where they topped their group with a 100% record. They won their Cup QF on penalties against Spain's ADP Allstars before a 3-1 loss in the Semi-Finals to the eventual winners, Los Swallacticos. The 2014 Barcelona Fives wasn't quite as successful as 3 draws in 4 games stunted their group progress which meant they qualified for the Trophy. From there they swept to glory with a 5-0 Quarter-Final win, 2-0 Semi-Final win and another 5-0 win over German side SV Zoo in the Final.

Today, they had a 3-0 walkover win to their name already but this would be their first taste of action on the pitch. They met a Depo Legends team who came into the game high on confidence after a 7-0 opening win. Elcombe Old Boys had some previous experience against Deportivo Dooradoyle having defeated the Depo Allstars (2-1) in Group E of the 2013 Barcelona Fives.

In the first half they were struggling to make their way past the Depo Legends defence but were strong at the back themselves and we entered half-time all level at 0-0.

The second half was a different story though as Elcombe Old Boys found their goalscoring touch with Andrew Hampshire opening the scoring before a Matt Hall double sealed a 3-0 win.

The game to take us to the half-way stage of Group D was Legends of the Vale against Dynamo Fucdarest 2. The two teams opening games had been contrasting experiences. Dynamo Fucdarest 2 had started off with a win and a clean sheet whereas Legends of the Vale had started off with a defeat and were looking for their first goals of the day.

Dynamo Fucdarest 2 had the opportunity to go joint top of the table with victory and the early stages of this game went with the form book as it was the men in black who opened up a 2-0 lead. Just as it looked like this would be the half-time score then Legends of the Vale scored their first in Europe through John Doyle – it arguably got the biggest cheer of the day so far from a growing fan club assembling by Pitch D for the Legends of the Vale.

After the break Dynamo Fucdarest 2 snuffed out any hopes of a comeback by making it 3-1 and then 4-1 to seal their second victory of the day. As in their first game there was a goal each for Raj Dhaliwal and Saaj Singh. On this occasion there was also a double for Mav Dhothar. Dynamo Fucdarest 2 were looking good and joint top of the table but currently second on goal difference.