As the 2013 Berlin Fives Cup Quarter-Finals were about to get underway we were down to the 8 top performing teams in the tournament representing the Czech Republic, France, England, Germany and Romania. There would be 7 games which would decide who would emerge victorious and claim the first ever Berlin Fives title.

We started on Pitch A with Luminy Wolves versus GFC Transylvania as France met Germany. The Group A champions Luminy Wolves record precedes them and in their fifth tournament this was their fifth Cup Quarter-Final. They so far had a record of won 3, drawn 1 (they went out on penalty shoot-outs).

GFC Transylvania were on debut and had a tough task to make the Cup Semi-Finals. They'd performed well this morning though and, the result against ABC United aside, there was no reason why they couldn't progress.

Luminy Wolves struck first through Nicolas Allegre and put GFC Transylvania on the back foot. It was Allegre again who doubled the lead for the team from the Marseille region. After the break Haikel Ben Khelifa made it 3-0 and Luminy Wolves were all but through.

Calvin Ji pulled a goal back to make it 3-1 but the muted celebrations told you all you needed to know that it was too little too late for the German team. Haikel Ben Khelifa made it 4-1 to confirm that and the French were in their 4 th eurofootballfives.com Cup Semi-Final.

Hasanheide Hotspur had two teams in the Cup Quarter-Finals 12 months ago and both went out – they would be determined to make amends and qualify for the Semi-Finals in 2013 . Their opponents were debutants SLFN Z – the last of the 3 SLFN teams in action.

Hasanheide Hotspur hit the front early on as Rory Kierans and Nathan Kumar gave them a 2-0 lead but they were pegged back to 2-2 by Antonio Luis and Shane Watson. It was a great recovery and we started the second half where we started the first half – all level. The teams could not be separated during the second period and with no further goals the referee blew the full time whistle at 2-2.

We were into Golden Goal extra time and would witness our first Golden Goal of the day. Who would claim it? Step forward Rory Kierans. His goal sent Hasanheide through and their 2012 Quarter-Final hoodoo was over.

It was a tough exit for SLFN who had seen teams exit by the closest of margins – Golden Goal and sudden death penalties. It was a pleasure to meet all three teams and we hope everyone enjoyed their first (and hopefully not last) eurofootballfives.com experience.

Quarter-Final three was ABC United versus DHL Prague Red. We are sure that DHL Prague Red were not particularly happy that after 15 tournaments with us we rewarded them with Luminy Wolves in the group stage and ABC United in the Quarter-Finals….it was as tough a draw as anyone could hope to avoid.

ABC United had powered through the group stage but DHL Prague Red were giving as good as they got in the early stages here. There was no doubt ABC United were the more probing but the Czechs were matching them. With such formidable opponents though the last thing you want to do is gift them a goal and that's what DHL Prague Red did. They conceded possession in their own third and left Ciprian Costel Mozacu through on goal and he duly obliged to make it 1-0.

DHL Prague Red kept plugging away and were almost level when a well worked free kick saw Dan Finlay's strike from distance cannon back off the crossbar. With the first half almost over it was still just 1-0 until two late strikes knocked the stuffing out of DHL Prague Red. It meant the half-time score was 3-0 (harsh on DHL Prague Red) and after the break ABC United went to town and wrapped up a 10-0 win. Phenomenal stuff really.

There were hat-tricks for Stefan Munteanu and Razvan Radu. Ciprian Costel Mozacu added his second of the game plus there were goals for Adrian Constantin Neaga and Catalin Nicolae Lita.

The final Quarter-Final was Cheesecake FC against Scandittack FC. The Group D winners had reached this stage with 12 points, 8 goals and none conceded despite not being fully “at it”. They would play a Scandittack FC team who had won 3 out of 4, had the biggest win of the day but came into the game on the back of a defeat so would need to bounce back quickly to prevent them going out.

It was early honours to Cheesecake FC as James Ingley who gave them a 1-0 lead. It was a lead they were to hold for a while and a lead they would need to defend as Scandittack FC came right back at them. In the second half Scandittack FC poured forward and it was backs to the wall stuff for Cheesecake FC who were under severe pressure.

Cheesecake FC were being forced to defend and they had little choice but to try and hold on to the 1-0 lead. Whenever they cleared it, the ball came back at them and eventually the pressure told and Scandittack FC pulled level through Niclas Carlsson. The momentum was with them and the pattern of the game remained the same with Scandittack FC sensing blood. They took the lead through Malte Romund and at 2-1 down Cheesecake FC looked deflated.

However, they are not easily beaten and very quickly they were back to 2-2 through Wes Armstrong. The referee called time on proceedings and we would be in Golden Goal extra time.

Cheesecake FC conceded that Scandittack FC were the better team and they looked the more likely winners in extra time. However, it only takes a moment to finish it with Golden Goal and that moment fell to Justin Rees, over to Europe for the tournament from Australia, who struck gold and sent his team into the Semi-Finals and Scandittack FC out of the tournament.

It was a sad way for Scandittack FC to go out who had done so much to reach the Semi-Finals but couldn't quite get over the line. It was a fantastic debut for them nonetheless and they showed more than enough ability to suggest they could reach a Final and win a eurofootballfives.com tournament.