Results
 

World Pinteur Veterans (Fra)

0

V

0*

Budapest Celtic Legends (Hun)

Elcombe Old Boys (Eng)

2

v

0

Bure Park Old Boys (Eng)

* Budapest Celtic Legends won 1-0 on penalties .
 

We were at the 2019 Budapest Veterans Tournament Cup Semi-Finals stage and, from the 12 teams who started the day, we were down to the final 4.

 

The first Cup Semi-Final would be contested by World Pinteur Veterans and Budapest Celtic Legends as France took on Hungary. World Pinteur Veterans came into the knock-out phase as the stand-out team from the group phase (although Elcombe Old Boys might challenge that). World Pinteur were ranked 1 st from the group phase with the joint highest points total of all the teams. They had scored the most goals and had the second best defensive record. Unsurprisingly, this gave them the best goal difference in the tournament and they were unbeaten with 4 wins and 1 draw to date.

 

That was the size of the task awaiting Budapest Celtic Legends. They had been pretty good this morning too with the exception of 1 defeat by the Hungarian Journaments NT. They had 2 wins and 2 draws to their name.

 

The first half here was close and the teams entered half-time level at 0-0. The second half was just as close as neither team could find a successful route to goal. The match ended goal-less and would go to penalties. World Pinteur had only been involved in one penalty shoot-out before in our tournaments – that was in the 2016 Lisbon Tournament Cup Final which they lost 2-0. Could they have better luck this time?

 

Adrian Courage was the first man up for Budapest Celtic Legends as he made it 1-0 to the local team. Florian Maurel had his penalty saved by Dimi Zaras and it was advantage to the Legends. Next up Benoit Botteau made an outstanding save. Initially he moved to his left but the ball was struck hard down the middle. Botteau raised a strong right arm to save it. Amazing save and kept World Pinteur in the tournament. Eric Lemoission thought he had levelled it up at 1-1 but was asked to re-take and he missed the re-take. It stayed 1-0 to the Legends and they had a chance to win it but hit the post with their final regulation penalty. It meant Richard Leibovici had the chance to save the French team but Dimi Zaras proved to be the hero – he made the save and sent his team to the Cup Final.

 
 
 

So, who would take their place in the Final from the second Semi-Final? The two teams set to do battle were Elcombe Old Boys against Bure Park Old Boys.

 

This was Elcombe Old Boys 8th appearance in our tournaments and 8th appearance in a Semi-Final – a truly remarkable record. Including today, this was 5 appearances in the Cup, 2 in the Plate and 1 in the Trophy. They had won 3 of those Semi-Finals which had lead to titles at the 2010 Algarve Open (Plate), 2014 Barcelona Fives (Trophy) and 2016 Barcelona Fives (Cup). Today they were looking in good shape with just two points dropped and yet to concede.

 

Bure Park had gone on to appear in their first eurofootballfives.com Cup Final last year when they went all the way to the final duel at the 2018 Mallorca Veterans tournament. They were successful 1-0 against Epsom Ath this time last year before going on to collect runners-up medals. They were the second highest scorers in the tournament so far and suffered just the one defeat in the group phase. Their attack would face their toughest challenge yet against the mean Elcombe defence.

 

The Elcombe Old Boys defence had some amazing runs without conceding that were without compare in our events. It read:

 

8 – Trophy QF, 2014 to Cup QF, 2015 inclusive.

6 – Group C, Round 4 to Cup SF, 2016 inclusive.

5 – All matches at 2019 Budapest Veterans so far.

3 – Group D, Round 4 to Round 7, 2017 inclusive.

 

With that in mind, Bure Park Old Boys had a mountain to climb from the moment they fell behind to a Matt Hall goal. Hall was a regular scorer in these tournaments but this was his first today. As is so often the case, he didn't have to wait long for his second. His two goal salvo was ultimately the difference between the two teams. Elcombe Old Boys were through to the finale.

 

We had to say a fond farewell to Bure Park Old Boys for today.

 
 
 
 
 
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