We
kicked off the knock-out phase with the Trophy
competition. This was a fantastic opportunity
for the teams finishing 5th and 6th in the morning
group phase to turn their fortunes around and
walk away with a trophy.
KLM
(NL) were first up against Bracknell Vets (Eng).
KLM had started the day superbly with 4 points
from their first 2 games. They had then slipped
to 3 successive defeats. In contrast, Bracknell
Vets had suffered a heavy opening defeat (admittedly
to a very good Greek team) before recording
2 draws and 2 narrow defeats. The first game
aside, they had been competitive throughout.
It
was KLM who struck first in this contest thanks
to Max Van Doeveren's second of the tournament.
Bracknell Vets levelled it up through Ash Balfour
as a penalty shoot-out would be required to
settle this one.
Our
Dutch friends had been involved in a number
of penalty shoot-outs in our tournaments before.
4 in fact with 3 defeats and 1 win. They were
to improve that statistic by winning this shoot-out
2-1 to proceed to the Semi-Finals. We bid farewell
to Bracknell Vets but hope to see them on tour
again next year.
For
the 17th time in eurofootballfives.com history
we had a Trophy competition to supplement our
traditional Cup and Plate competitions. This was
the 11th time we had a 24-team event in addition
to 21-team, 25-team (x3) and 32-team (x2) events.
It was also the 7th consecutive year we'd had
a Trophy competition at the Barcelona Fives. Thank
you to everyone for supporting this great event.
Next
up was PVDC Eindhoven versus FNV. If the latter
could take victory they would set up an all Dutch
semi-final and guarantee at least one of their
teams would be going home with medals today.
FNV
had experienced a chastening morning with 5 defeats
but their results had been improving. Their defeats
had been 9-0, 9-0, 6-0, 5-1 and 1-0. In the final
game they seemed to have found the right tactical
set-up and were more competitive. That continued
into this game and they were 0-0 at half-time.
PVDC Eindhoven had enough to qualify for the next
stage though as a Connor Secker goal sent them
through.
Trophy
Quarter-Final 3 saw Footballab face FC Dad. Footballlab
were on debut and when we saw them in the first
game against 2018 Gdansk Tournament winners Northern
Town we thought they looked pretty good despite
a narrow 1-0 loss. Results didn't quite go their
way thereafter but they picked up a draw and a
victory. Interestingly, that win was against FC
Maroon – the sister squad of FC Dad. Could Footballab
make it a Maroon-Dad double or could FC Dad gain
revenge on the Spanish team for their travelling
companions?
FC
Dad certainly got off to the brighter start as
they established a 2-0 lead by half-time. Calum
Jones opened his personal account and Ben McNamee
doubled his tournament total. When FC Dad went
3-0 up with a Will Reddie goal in the second half
it looked like job done. There was a little sting
in the tail from Footballab with Alesandro Manzano's
second of the competition but it was too little
too late for them.
We'd
like to thank Footballab for participating in
our tournament for the first time. FC Dad were
through to the semi-finals.
Last
but not least in the Trophy Quarter-Finals we
came to Cranwell versus RAF Fylingdales as the
5th placed team in Group D took on the 6th placed
team in Group C.
RAF
Fylingdales had a mixed and varied history in
the knockout phase of our tournaments. Before
today they had qualified for the Trophy (x1),
Plate (x2) and Cup (x1). They had seen exits at
the Quarter-Final stage (Plate 1, Cup x1) in the
last two seasons. At the 2016 Riga Tournament
they won their Plate Quarter-Final 6-3 against
Latvian side Zemniecki in the Quarter-Finals before
going down to Plate winners DHFC, 4-1. Their one
Trophy appearance saw a play-off exit (pre-cursor
to the main Quarter-Final draw that year) 3-0
at the hands of Spain's ADP Dream Team.
This
year they tasted a third successive Quarter-Final
defeat despite goals from Jim Williams and Dion
Jones. Cranwell were the joint third top scoring
team in the group phase and they were banging
the goals in again here. A hat-trick for Jack
Harrison took him to 8 goals for the day – currently
the top scorer in the tournament. Paddy Hobson
and Stuart Scott were also on target as Cranwell
went through, 5-2.