After 72 games of football we came down to the most important of them all. Game 73 – The 2018 Barcelona Fives Cup Final. Previous Winners:

2008 Rapid Bosco Navas (Spa)

2009 (June) Anglo Knights (Spa)

2009 (November) Luminy Wolves (Fra)

2010 Magic Monkeys (Eng)

2011 (April) Equipo A (Spa)

2011 (November) Midshire FC (Eng)

2012 Black Sheep (Spa)

2013 Los Swallacticos (NIR)

2014 Monexy (Ukr)

2015 Club Esportiu Llefia (Spa)

2016 Elcombe Old Boys (Eng)

2017 L'Albiceleste (Fra)

We had previously had winners from France, Spain, England, Northern Ireland and the Ukraine. Would it be Greece or Lithuania adding their name to that list?

LT United (Ltu)

Played 6, Won 6, Drawn 0, Lost 0.

Goal difference +15 (18-3)

Top Goalscorer today: Edgaras Buzas & Linas Vaiciukauskas (both 6)

Successive wins: 7 (dating back to the 2017 Barcelona Fives)

Games unbeaten: 12 (dating back to the 2017 Barcelona Fives)

Previous eurofootballfives.com honours: 2017 Barcelona Fives Plate. Edgaras Buzas – top goalscorer, 2017 Barcelona Fives

AC Mazi 1996 (Gre)

Played 7, Won 7, Drawn 0, Lost 0.

Goal difference +34 (37-3)

Top Goalscorer today: Thanasay LAerto (16)

Successive wins: 7

Games unbeaten: 7

Previous eurofootballfives.com honours: N/A - debut

With the game underway it was AC Mazi 1996 who took the lead. It was perhaps no surprise that is was 16-goal hero Thanasaj Laerto who became 17-goal hero. He added a second to make it 2-0.

AC Mazi 1996 had moved through the gears in the knockout phase with 7-0 and 8-0 wins in the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals both against French opposition. LT United were proving to be sterner opposition but AC Mazi 1996 always seemed to be in control.

All credit goes to LT United. They stayed strong and whereas other teams may have folded they made sure they didn't full further behind but were unable to get a goal at the other end. As time ticked by it looked like 2-0 would be the final score. Then, we had a crazy few moments. Thanasaj Laerto hit a stunning free-kick that Tomas Urbanavicius touched on to the cross-bar and out for a corner except the referee didn't spot the touch and gave a goal kick. LT United went up the other end and reduced the deficit to 2-1. Dalius Kisla strike initially hit a defender but it looped up over the Nikitas Anevlavis who was helpless in the AC Mazi 1996 goal. He had a superb 5 clean sheets to his name already and was unlucky not to make it 6.

LT United were not done just yet as it set up a thrilling last couple of minutes as the Lithuanians had renewed hope. If they could grab another and send this into a penalty shoot-out they had a chance. The Greek defence held strong though and some light relief as the referee was not fooled by a desperation comedy dive from one of the Lithuanian players. Imagine if he had though and given the pen! What controversy that would have been but it showed anything could happen. AC Mazi 1996 saw the game out and there was no doubt they were the best team in the tournament.

Our sincere commiserations to LT United who had come so close to glory but just came up against a better team in the Cup Final. They had been brilliant on the day and it was their best performance at a eurofootballfives.com event to date.

Our congratulations go to AC Mazi 1996 on their first eurofootballfives.com victory and it was a first eurofootballfives.com win for Greece in our events. They were worthy winners. The individual honours went to Thansaj Laerto – he was our top scorer with 18 goals. This was a record at the Barcelona Fives!

We'd like to say a big thank you to all 23 teams who participated. The success of this great event really was down to you playing the tournament in a great spirit, being on time for fixtures and helping us keep everything running so everyone could have a superb time. The Barcelona Fives, as ever, proved to be a fantastic climax to our season and we very much hope to see you all in 2019 in Barcelona and/or one of our other destinations.