We were now at the business end of the tournament and into the knock-out stage of the 2013 Krakow Trophy. Lose now and it was the end of the day from a football perspective.

The first Quarter-Final would be contested by Contejus Hurricanes and Its Back. On paper this should be the easiest Quarter-Final to predict. The 3rd best 3rd placed finishers reward for the highest league placing of all the Plate Quarter-Finalists is a tie against the lowest ranked team in the tournament to date. However, it doesn't always work out that way and the 2012 Mallorca Tournament proved this when Inextremes gunned down 4-times Cup winners Olympic Phil Babb at this same stage! Could Its Back provide the same heroics?

In the opening period there was just the one goal and it went to the favourites Contejus Hurricanes and was scored by Christopher Agathangelou. After the break Christopher Agathangelou scored again to put his team in a commanding position. Martin Weltman rounded things off to make it 3-0 and Contejus Hurricanes were through.

For Its Back, they could retire to the BBQ tent and enjoy the cheap Tyskie that was on offer and work through the rest of their hangovers – hair of the dog and all that. It wasn't their best eurofootballfives.com appearance on the pitch but we believe they had a great time off it (if they could remember!)

Quarter-Final 3 was Team Karma versus Barely Athletic. Team Karma were no strangers to the knock-out stages in eurofootballfives.com competition and had success in Quarter-Finals on two previous occasions (1) Valencia Fives 2010 with a 4-1 win over Spain's Tarifa 3 and (2) Valencia Fives 2012 with a win over Team GB, 2-1, playing as Sporting Abeergut. A hat-trick would be just what the doctor ordered?

For Barely Athletic this was the final chance for the stag group of Sean Downs. Hardly Athletic were in the process of being eliminated on Pitch B. Could Barely Athletic fare better on Pitch C?

We had the biggest win in the knock-out stages of the day – 8-0. The winners were Team Karma with three strikes in the first half and five strikes in the second half. Chris Weedon got the ball rolling before John Preston made it 2-0. Richard Holliday made it 3-0 before Andy Gauld scored four times and Jason Carr also found the net.

We said farewell to Barely Athletic and would like to thank the Barely/Hardly Athletic guys for choosing the Krakow Trophy for the stag weekend. It was a pleasure to see you both. Rumour has it that a few of the guys are looking to join us in the 2014 Budapest Fives – it will be great to see you all again then.

The fourth Plate Quarter-Final would be contested by Budapest Celtic Tigers and Saga Louts. Budapest Celtic Tigers would arguably be favourites having finished 4 th in their group and they were regulars in our Cup competition. Before today, their 13 team appearances had yielded 11 teams qualifying for the Cup and 2 teams qualifying for the Plate – the Pumas in the 2012 Budapest Fives and Tigers in the 2013 Budapest Fives. In two Plate Quarter-Finals, one was won and one was lost…interestingly the one that was lost was the Tigers squad earlier this year.

Saga Louts had pedigree themselves so don't rule them out. In the 2012 Valencia Fives they qualified for the Cup before going out to the eventual winners FC Miracle (by coincidence…another Hungarian team). They had been drawn in a tough group here in Krakow so we would see how they fared against a team from another group.

When the referee blew for half-time it was Saga Louts who held a one goal advantage thanks to Ian Mansley. Could Budapest Celtic Tigers respond? It would be a real test as they had won their first two games of the day but since lost two. A third successive defeat was on the cards. This looked a distinct possibility when Dave Tyrell made it 2-0. The result was then a certainty when Simon Dearing wrapped things up for 3-0.

It was a great win for Saga Louts – the only team in the Quarter-Finals to defeat a higher ranked team from the group phase. Their reward was a derby game versus Team Karma in the next round.

The Tigers were out but Budapest Celtic still had interest in this tournament with the Lions squad about to get their Cup challenge underway.