Group B kicked off on Pitch B where Alea Iacta Est were to make their second successive appearance at our Krakow events. They appeared 12 months ago here at the 2021 Krakow Trophy. Back then, they started solidly with a 1-1 draw versus FC Foreigntina before a narrow 1-0 defeat to Only Kruls & Horses. They picked up a first win over Lanky Londoners (2-1) before destroying Luffs 11-0. They finished third in their group table which saw Plate qualification. In the Semi-Finals they despatched GSF Drunkerz (4-0). In the Plate Final a 1-0 win over Giggs Boson saw them pick up their first trophy in our events.

Today they kicked off against Bure Park Seniors who were making a 12 th appearance in our events and a second in Krakow, some 9 years after their first. The two teams seemed pretty well matched after the early exchanges but a devastating 5 minute spell before half-time firmly swung the game in favour of the Polish team.

Artur Aksamit, Krzysztof Kurzeja and Rafal Krukowski all scored in quick succession. The second half reverted back to being close again with Alea Iacta Est unable to increase their lead but crucially Bure Park Seniors were unable to mount a recovery in terms of goals. Alea Iacta Est ran out 3-0 winners.

The last team to get their campaign underway was Podgorze or at least it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, Podgorze were unable to fulfill their attendance in the tournament. It meant all other teams in Group B would receive a 3-0 walkover win in their games against Podgorze. The first team to pick up those walkover points was Alea Iacta Est.

Bure Park Seniors were next in action on Pitch B as they entertained Thursday Veterans.

Since moving up the Veterans level in 2017 we have seen Bure Park's Saga Louts squad finished 5th of 6 teams in Group A at Lisbon 2017 and the Where's Dave squad finish 4th in Group B. Where's Dave qualified for the Plate Semi-Finals but went out to Porto's Compact Records.

The 2018 Mallorca Veterans Tournament saw a particularly successful day for Bure Park Seniors. They won Group A with 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat. Their good form continued into the knock-out phase where they won their Cup Semi-Final 1-0 over Epsom Ath. They ran out of legs in the final though as they slipped to a 3-0 defeat to Policia Local de Palma.

Their most recent appearance was the Budapest Veterans in 2019 where Bure Park Seniors were competitive but did not quite bag the results. They opened up with a narrow 1-0 loss to Elcombe Old Boys (eventual champions) and then 3-0 to the Hungarian Journalists NT. They picked up a first win (3-2) versus Old York Cosmos before a couple of draws (2-2) v Peebles All Stars and (1-1) versus Budapest Celtic Legends. The Seniors finished 4 th in Group B to reach the Plate Semi-Finals. Their day was ended by the Budapest Celtic Heroes, 4-1.

They were competitive in their first game bar a 5-minute period. They began well here though as Jason Carr and Simon Dearing gave them an early 2-0 lead. Joao Martins and Borislav Dimitrov then each scored to put Thursday Veterans level at 2-2. Bure Park Seniors responded through Oszkar Calusi but Ruben Mendes pegged them back again. It was 3-3 and it was only half-time.

Thursday Veterans came out firing in the second half as Borislav Dimitrov proved the difference. He scored a hat-trick to put his team 6-3 up. Oszkar Calusi scored for Bure Park to make it 6-4 but any hopes of a comeback of their own was snuffed out by Borislav Dimitrov's fifth of the game. Final score, 4-7.

The game that took us to the halfway stage of Group B was the walkover for FC Dad's Club over Podgorze. It meant they were joint top with a couple of fixtures to play.