The 31st August 2013 saw the second JNJ Euro Soccer 5-a-side Tournament kick off in the amazing city of Budapest. 12 teams from 7 nations assembled to do battle, who would emerge victorious and claim the coveted title?

First up on Pitch A was JNJ High Wycombe A versus JNJ Wuppertal…nothing like an England v Germany fixture to get the ball rolling in style!

JNJ High Wycombe competed in the 2012 JNJ Euro Soccer Tournament and were very impressive. They finished 2nd in their group before going on to reach the Cup Final. In the Cup Final they went so close to claiming glory as they took the Final into extra time after a 2-2 draw. Unfortunately for them JNJ Croatia claimed the Golden Goal and they had to settle for Runners-Up medals. They come to Budapest with 2 teams this year - JNJ High Wycombe A and JNJ High Wycombe B. The A team featured much of their squad from 12 months ago.

JNJ Wuppertal also competed in Prague last year with two teams. The A team won Group C and the B team finished 4th in Group B (6-team groups). In the knock-out stage the B team fell at that Plate Quarter-Final stage to GTSC of Belgium. The A team fell at the Cup Quarter-Final stage to JNJ Russia B. For Budapest they concentrate their talent into one squad.

With the game underway it was the English team taking up most of the initiative and the German goalkeeper was the busier of the two. There was only one goal to separate the two teams – it came from Alex Parkinson for JNJ High Wycombe A and they were off the mark with a win.

The final two teams in the opening round of fixtures began their campaign with JNJ Croatia meeting JNJ Pinewood of England.

With the game underway it was JNJ Croatia who made a rapid start opening up a 3-0 lead by half-time. It was a sensational opening half of football and JNJ Pinewood must have been shocked by the onslaught they faced. There was no mercy shown by the Croatians in the second half as they were ruthless in completing a fine 5-0 victory.

There was a hat-trick for Patrik Godec and further goals from Hrvoje Glavas and Zlatko Glavas as JNJ Croatia were the early leaders in Group A. It was a disastrous start for JNJ Pinewood but the day was still young and there was at least 5 more games for the English team to recover in their search for silverware.