Round 3 started with Wonder Vision taking on Danish Dynamites.

Chris Fajer was making his fourth appearance in our tournaments bringing his Wonder Vision team to eurofootballfives.com competition. He competed previously as Warranty Direct when they debuted at the 2010 Barcelona Fives where a third place finish in the group was followed by winning the Plate competition. They defeated Sesimbassa in the Plate Final to lift the trophy. They then played in the 2010 Valencia Fives where they were unfortunate to draw the group of death which featured 3 of the 4 finalists in Cup and Plate competition. A return to Barcelona in 2011 saw another 3 rd placed group finish and qualification for the Plate again as they looked to defend their title. A 3-1 defeat to Preston Youth ended their hopes in the Quarter-Finals.

Today, Wonder Vision had begun with a 0-0 against the reigning champions and a 2-0 defeat to P Slayers. Their opponents, Danish Dynamites had defeated the defending champions 2-1 but also lost to Ireland's Deportivo 2.0. Group D was looking like the proverbial “Group of Death” where any team was capable of beating any other team.

It was Danish Dynamites who took the lead here thanks to a goal from Jesper Frisch. Wonder Vision could have been forgiven for getting that sinking feeling but they responded well. Calum Miller was the man to score their first goal of the tournament and it was a goal that earned a 1-1 draw.

P Slayers were our early leaders in Group D. Two teams had tried and failed to take points from them – could Fail Madrid 1 slay the P Slayers?

Fail Madrid were back in eurofootballfives.com action after trips to Berlin and Riga. They made their debut at the 2015 Berlin Fives where they finished 5th in their group and were unlucky to do so with a goal difference of just -3 so they were competitive throughout. They qualified for the Plate and picked up a 1-0 win over Coverton Road before a 1-1 draw with Tommie's Guns in the Semi-Finals. Their tournament ended here though after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat.

Their next eurofootballfives.com adventure took them to the 2016 Riga Tournament. They started off with a 3-2 win over Latvian team Aliance before defeat to eventual champions L'Albiceleste. They then finished the group with 3 draws in a row which slowed their progress up the table. A fourth place finish earned them a berth in the Plate competition. In the Quarter-Finals, a fourth draw in a row against Zemniecki meant penalties would decide their fate. The Latvian side won 2-1 on spot-kicks and Fail Madrid were out.

Fail Madrid had increased numbers and split into two teams for the first time here in Barcelona. Had the new recruits strengthened them? They had a slow start with a heavy defeat in Round 1 but steadied the ship with a good draw against the 2015 champions in Round 2. This was another encouraging performance against the league leaders in Round 3 as they held their own to earn a 0-0 draw.

P Slayers had lost their 100% record but the 0-0 draw was not the worst in the world as it meant they retained the lead at the top of Group D.

Elcombe Old Boys' defence of their title had not yet gone to plan so far. They had taken just 1 point from a possible 6 which represented their worst start to a Barcelona Fives campaign. Their next opponents were FourInTina (Wal). The Welsh team had two wins out of two so far and topped the group on goal difference.

Although relatively early in the tournament you felt this was a must win game for Elcombe Old Boys. The reigning champions raised their game and found their touch in front of goal. Andy Hampshire scored in last year's Cup Final and he was on the mark again here to put his team 1-0 up. Martin Nash, on debut, then fired in two more to give Elcombe Old Boys a cushion at 3-0. 3-0 became 4-0 when Hampshire added his second of the game.

Ellis Wood pulled a goal back for FourInTina and then added another to make it 4-2 but Elcombe Old Boys' lead was sufficient for them to take all 3 points.

Club Esportiu Llefia (Spa) versus Deportivo 2.0 (Ire) was the game that took us to the end of Round 3 in Group D. This was a repeat of the 2015 Barcelona Fives Cup Final. On that occasion, Club Esportiu Llefia defeated Deportivo 2.0 (playing as the Alabama Hotpockets) 5-0 as the Irish team ran out of steam a little bit. It was only 1-0 at half-time before Club Esportiu Llefia eased away in the second period.

Club Esportiu Llefia still had the nucleus of that squad with 5 players from 2015 also appearing here in 2017. Deportivo 2.0 had 3 of their 5 players from 2015 here in the squad for 2017. Kevin Shine, John Shine and Patrick O'Brien were boosted with a squad of 7 here this year.

It was Deportivo 2.0 who struck the opening goal this time as Patrick O'Brien kept up his record this morning of scoring in every game. Club Esportiu Llefia also had a goal per game man in the shape of Alfred Jimenez De Andres. De Andres scored twice in that 2015 Cup Final and he was to get another here to make it 1-1.

Club Esportiu Llefia had the final say as a Fernandez Moreno goal won it for the Spanish team. The Barcelona side really needed that goal in the context of the group and it saw them rise from fifth to fourth but more importantly meant they were only three points off the leaders. Deportivo were a point and two places behind in the league table.