We arrived at the Plate Quarter-Final stage and we would shortly see the eight qualifying teams reduced to four. The teams had put a great effort into their group campaigns but now we were at the business end of the tournament.

Up first we had defending Cup champions Club Esportiu Llefia (Spa) against CBT FC (Eng). Club Esportiu Llefia were in the Cup qualification places until the final round of group games so they would have to cope with the disappointment of seeing their title defence over. If they could, with two Barcelona Fives Cup wins on their CV, they would certainly be the favourites to go on and win this Plate competition.

CBT FC were a team that needed to recover their early morning form. They started off with a 2-0 win over RAF Boulmer but had then tasted four successive defeats but more worrying was the defeats were getting larger 2-1, 3-0, 4-1 and 5-0. Hopefully the lunch break would have served as a chance to re-charge the batteries and start the knockout phase as they had begun the group phase.

It certainly looked like that could be the case as they held their opponents to a goal-less first half. In the second half though Club Esportiu Llefia made the breakthrough and it was Sergi Garcia Arguile – scorer of 3 goals for his side in 2021 but his first of this year's event. CBT FC struck back through Will Downing to make it 1-1 which was the same score as when their sister side TBC FC met CE Llefia in Group B. If CBT FC could match their tour mates they would take this game to penalties.

It was not to be though as Francisco Lorenzo Gonzalez struck a winner to send the Spanish through and the English home. A valiant effort from CBT FC.

In the lower half of the Quarter-Final draw it was TBC FC versus Polonia Limerick. Both teams were making their tournament debut so we only had their group performances to go by in terms of a preview of this match.

TBC FC would start as favourites as they had the better of the two group records having finished in fourth position in Group B. They had 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats so far today – those defeats came against the top two and one of those was in the final minute of the game so they had remained competitive throughout. Polonia Limerick had 1 win, 1 draw and 3 defeats including a 2-2 draw against the 2017 champions in their final group match. TBC FC had a goal difference of 8-7 today versus 5-11 for Polonia Limerick.

Despite the statistical form it was Polonia Limerick who struck first. Edward Przekwas opened the scoring with his third of the tournament and his team lead 1-0 at the change of ends. In the second period Przekwas added another to make it 2-0. The Polish team then got on a bit of a run as Dominik Olczak and Lukas Wojcik made it 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. It was a fantastic result for Polonia Limerick – not just the victory but the margin of victory.

It meant, with CBT FC losing on Campo A, that the day was over – on the football field at least – for the group. We'd like to thank the guys for joining the tournament and we hope they enjoyed their eurofootballfives.com debut.

The final Quarter-Final was BBA Veterans versus Argon'ze A. The French team had just seen their B team knocked out so this was their A team carried all the hopes of glory. Argon'ze's knockout record over the years read:

2016 Barcelona Fives     TQF: Lost 4-1 to Bolivar

2017 Mallorca Fives        PQF: Drew 1-1 with Mannliefde (lost on pens)

                                             PQF: Won 3-0 v FC De Rimmer

                                            PSF: Lost 2-1 to Mannenliefde

2017 Barcelona Fives    TQF: Won 1-0 v Wonder Vision

                                            TSF: Drew 1-1 v Leek High Boys (lost on pens)

2018 Barcelona Fives     CQF: Drew 1-1 v Red Light Runners (won on pens)

                                           CSF: Lost 8-0 v AC Mazi 1996

                                           PQF: Lost 3-0 v Pass To Russ FC

2019 Budapest Fives    TSF: Won 2-1 v Tom's Mum Is A Tramp FC

                                           TF: Lost 2-0 v GSF Drunkerz

Their Quarter-Final record wasn't too bad. Before today it was qualify x3 times and knocked out x3 times. They were up against a BBA Veterans team who had been very tight defensively today so it was a worry for Argon'ze A when they went 2-0 down in the first half. Both goals were scored by Joe Lazell.

The writing was on the wall for Argon'ze as BBA Veterans had kept 3 clean sheets in their 5 group games. The English team were just as solid in this match. Argon'ze A were unable to find a breakthrough and they were out. We want to thank them for supporting the tournament once again and making the train journey from Paris. For BBA Veterans, we looked forward to seeing them in the next round.