Last but not least, we turned our attentions to Group D where the group began with Wonder Vision versus Elcombe Old Boys.

This was the start of the campaign for our defending champions, Elcombe Old Boys. They were looking to become only the second team in our history to successfully defend a title. In our 11 season history, only Athletico Do Hollande had achieved this feat when they won the 2010 and 2011 Algarve Open.

These were two teams who had both appeared at the Barcelona Fives before. Elcombe Old Boys were making a fifth consecutive appearance – a record for a travelling team and second only to Rapid Bosco Navas who competed for 11 successive tournaments. Chris Fajer was competing at the Barcelona Fives for the third time with his Wonder Vision team having brought his Warranty Direct team to the tournament in 2010 and 2011.

Elcombe Old Boys started off with a 0-0 draw last year (against Argon'ze) and they were to do so again here in 2017. It was the third time in four years they opened up with a draw. For Wonder Vision, it was a good point against the defending champions and hopefully bode well for the rest of their campaign.

Match 2 in Group D saw Club Esportiu Llefia (Spa) versus P Slayers (Eng).

Club Esportiu Llefia were making their third eurofootballfives.com with all 3 appearances here at the Barcelona Fives. Their previous two campaigns were both successful as they won the overall title in 2015 and were Plate winners in 2016. They also wrapped up the individual honours with Alfred Jimenez de Andres winning the top goalscorer award in both seasons. He scored 9 in 2015 and 12 in 2016.

P Slayers were making their second eurofootballfives.com appearance after playing as Yac Club in the 2016 Riga Tournament. On their Riga debut they got off to a flying start with a 1-0 win over FC Maroon but they found themselves behind after the early exchanges here. It was perhaps no surprise to hear that it was Alfred Jimenez de Andres with the goal for the Spanish team.

P Slayers did not let the early setback faze them as they struck back through Jon Trout to make it 1-1. They then completed a superb turnaround from 1-0 down to 2-1 up as Dom Morgan scored the winning goal.

It was another opening win for P Slayers and a particularly good one against the 2015 champions.

Deportivo 2.0 (Ire) were making a welcome return to action at the 2017 Barcelona Fives. It would be their third appearance after playing in the 2013 and 2015 events. They had enjoyed some decent success on previous visits as they won the Plate in 2013 (playing as Depo All Stars) and were Runners-Up in the Cup in 2015 (playing as The Alabama Hotpockets).

This was therefore a tough opener for Danish Dynamites. They were a team technically on debut but they do feature eurofootballfives.com experience in the form of Jesper Frisch. He played for Ireland's Smithfields OAPs at the 2016 Barcelona Fives. He had a successful day with 6 wins out of 7 in the group phase. They then drew 0-0 in the Quarter-Finals before getting knocked out on penalties. His Danish Dynamites team will be the first team to represent Denmark in our tournaments.

It was a winning start for Deportivo 2.0 as goals from Tom Kelleher and Patrick O'Brien helped them on their way to a 2-0 victory. Could they go one step further this year compared to their 2015 campaign?

On Pitch D in Group D we had FourInTina (Wal) versus Fail Madrid 1 (Eng). FourInTina were on debut and only the second team from Wales to compete at the Barcelona Fives. Wrexham Rednecks were the trailblazers for Wales back at the 2014 edition of the tournament. It was not overly successful as they finished 5th of 5 teams in their group and did not qualify for the group phase. Could FourInTina fare better?

The quick answer to that is yes and they announced themselves in style. Keiran Kendrick was the man with the honour of scoring their first goal in eurofootballfives.com tournament action. It did not take long before Lloyd Hubbard became the second. Keiran Kendrick was on target again to make it 3-0 before Ellis Wood scored on the European scene to make it 4-0.

For Fail Madrid 1 it was a slow start to life in Group D but they did have the final say. A James Boshier goal completed the scoring but it was to be a mere consolation. Final score, 4-1.