Group C kicked off on Pitch D where Capital Park Leeds Whites returned to eurofootballfives.com action after a brief hiatus since the 2016 event in Krakow. They would begin their 2019 Riga campaign against JNJ Saudi Arabia who were making their debut in the event.

This was a historic match in our tournaments as it represented the first ever appearance by a team from Saudi Arabia in our tournaments. Saudi Arabia became the 40th nation to have team representation at our events. They follow-on from the USA and Tunisia who were the 38th and 39th at our 2019 Alicante Tournament.

It was an impressive debut from Saudi Arabia as they stormed to a 6-0 victory. Mohammed Abu Matar was the first man to score for his team and his country in our events. Sayel Fararjeh was the second as JNJ Saudi Arabia lead 2-0 at half-time.

It got even better after the change of ends as Khaled Mahmoud, Anas Al Kaoud, Saeed Alzaharani and Nayif Aljuhani all scored. There was a clean sheet for Amen Abbas too. Job done!

In Game 2, we Nordic Vikings 2.0 versus Leeds One.

Leeds One were making a fifth successive appearance in the tournament. Last year at the 2018 Budapest tournament they were solid in Group B with 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats including a point against the eventual champions. They finished 3rd of 7 teams to qualify for the Cup. A 4-0 win for JNJ Russia meant a third successive Cup QF exit for the English team.

It was a slow start for Leeds One though as Nordic Vikings 2.0 established a 2-0 lead with goals from Payraw Farhad and Lucas Carete. Leeds One got their first of the day through Luke Booker to reduce the deficit to 2-1 at half-time.

Leeds One were getting into their stride as Luke Booker scored an equalizer after the break before Edwin Welch's first goal meant a 2-0 deficit had become a 3-2 lead. The pendulum swung back towards Nordic Vikings 2.0 though when Andrew Lewis made it 3-3. There was still time for a winner and it came from Kasper Vadstrup to record a sensational 4-3 win for Nordic Vikings 2.0.

The last team to get their campaign underway was Janssen Lithuania as they took on Capital Park Leeds Whites.

Janssen Lithuania were about to take to the field for the first time not only today but in this tournament as a whole. It proved to be a tough baptism of fire for the Lithuanians. Capital Park Leeds Whites had lost their opener 6-0 but they were the team dishing out the damage in Game 3 of Group C.

Simon Yaffe scored his team's first of the day and they never looked back. Aivaras Dujotas was one of 3 Lithuanians in the Capital Park Leeds Whites team playing against his compatriots. Dujotas scored a first-half hat-trick as his team lead 4-0 at the interval.

In the second half Jake Jackson made it 5-0 to Capital Park Leeds. Then, Kestutis Cesevicius became the first player from Janssen Lithuania to score in the JNJ Euro Soccer Tournament. It was only a brief respite as James Dunstan completed a 6-1 win for the English team.

The game that took us to the halfway stage of Group C was to be Leeds One (Eng) versus Janssen Lithuania (Ltu).

Leeds One debuted at the 2014 JNJ Euro Soccer Tournament as S & OP FC. They narrowly lost 5-4 to JNJ Zug before a debut win 2-0 over Gerri Hatricks FC. They went down 4-1 to JNJ Russia B before a great 3-2 win over J&J Poland. They then lost to the champions in waiting JNJ High Wycombe A. They had qualified for the Plate Semi-Finals where the champions from Budapest 2013, JNJ Russia A, knocked them out.

They took two teams to mount their 2015 challenge in Prague playing as Leeds One and Leeds Two. The teams finished 4th and 6th in their respective groups to qualify for the Plate and the Wooden Spoon. Leeds One went out in a 6-5 thriller to Cilag Team 2 (Swi) whereas Leeds Two lost out in the Wooden Spoon play-off to GBS Reds (Cze).

At the Krakow 2016 event they competed as The Rodallega Bombs. A good morning group session saw them claim 3 wins and 1 draw from their 6 games as they finished 4 th of 7 teams in Group A. They qualified for the Cup Quarter-Finals but met the winners of Group B as they went out 4-0.

The 2017 Bratislava edition saw them draw the eventual winners Cilag Team 1 in a difficult group. They won 2 and lost 2 to finish in third position which saw them qualify for the Cup again. It was Cup Quarter-Final elimination again though as they lost to JNJ Turkey. Then came Budapest 2018 (see report from earlier game) where they finished third and another Cup QF exit.

They opened up with defeat here but their second game was much more like the form we'd expected from Leeds One. They produced a thumping 10-0 win with four goals in the first half and six in the second period.

Tom Budden got the ball rolling with a hat-trick (he would go on to get a fourth). Luke Booker had two goals to celebrate as did Josh Ward and Josh Lynn. Leeds One were up to second.