Last but not least, we turned our attentions to Group D where the group began with Bolivar versus Shahs of Sunset.

Both of these teams had played in the Barcelona Fives before with Boliver playing as Equipo de Christian just 12 months ago. The Shahs of Sunset were here back in 2013 and they did particularly well in the group phase with 9 points from a possible 12 and they finished as one of 3 teams at the top of the group. They ended up finishing third on goal difference and miss out on the Cup which was pretty unfortunate. A Plate Quarter-Final win was followed by a Semi-Final defeat to end their day on that occasion.

Could they go further here in 2016? If they were to do so they would have to play catch up as they slipped to defeat in their opening game but with 7 group games for each team they certainly had time on their side to recover from the early set-back.

Bolivar got off to the perfect start with David Canales Saez scoring his team's first goal of the tournament. Their second was scored by Giuseppe Raveollo as the Barcelona-based team secured a 2-0 win.

Match 2 in Group D saw Unbelievable Technippers (Eng) versus Los Swallacticos (Nir).

Unbelievable Technippers were on eurofootballfives.com debut so we did not know quite what to expect from the home side but Los Swallacticos were a familiar sight on the Barcelona Fives scene making their third appearance in four seasons.

Los Swallacticos are one of three previous winners (2013) in the tournament draw (along with Rapid Bosco Navas in 2008 and Club Esportiu Llefia in 2015) which would no doubt mark them out as one of the favourites to lift the title here in 2016. They certainly lived up to that billing in the first game.

It was a great start in particular for Conor Taylor who opened the scoring for his team and also made it 2-0. Foge Cunningham then made it 3-0 before Conor Taylor was back in the goal-scoring action to complete his hat-trick. He was not finished there as he scored his fourth of the game and helped Los Swallacticos complete an emphatic 5-0 victory.

It was a tough baptism of fire for Unbelievable Technippers in eurofootballfives.com competition.

Red Light Runners (Ire) were making a welcome return to action after an 8 year sabbatical. In 2008 they competed at both the 2008 Krakow Trophy and the 2008 Barca Fives. They were the champions in Krakow and the runners-up in Barcelona.

They were up against a Drunk Perfect team that had graced the fields of the Barcelona Fives on four previous occasions and were making their fifth appearance in six years since their 2011 debut. The zenith of their achievements has been the Cup Quarter-Finals which they reached in 2011 but they have also had a Plate Final and a Trophy Final appearance (in 2015 and 2013 respectively) under their belts – they were runners-up in both.

Although 8 years had passed since they last kicked a ball in anger in our tournaments the Red Light Runners seemed to continue from where they left off. Stephen Doherty scored their first of the day before Corey Gallagher bagged his first of the tournament. Stephen Doherty added another to his tally to complete a superb 3-0 win.

On Pitch D in Group D we had Athletico De Leave versus Beercelona. In the match on Pitch D immediately prior to this game we saw Leave It FC draw 0-0 with Skackney FC in Group C. Athletico De Leave were the sister squad of Leave It FC so could they go one better than their touring mates and secure an opening victory?

At this point we should probably note we had two very similarly named teams in the tournament draw – Beercalona (Ire) and Beercelona (Eng). The two teams were entirely separate and a subtle spelling difference and the country of residence were what differentiated them. In Group D, it was the team from England competing.

They were competing pretty well too as it was they who forged ahead. Richie Murphy had the honour of scoring their first goal in eurofootballfives.com tournament action. Sari Itani followed him to make it 2-0 before Luke Delaney contributed the third and fourth of the game. Jason James added his name to the scoresheet as Beercelona completed a superb 5-0 win.