Group B began with Shrewsbury Townsend from England taking on PPB of Portugal.

Shrewsbury Townsend were making their third eurofootballfives.com appearance after a very impressive debut at the 2012 Berlin Fives. They finished unbeaten and in second place in their group behind eventual champions Rigford Seahawks. They qualified for the Cup defeating DHL Prague White 3-1 in the Quarter-Finals, Bafta Boys on penalties after a 2-2 daw in the Semi-Finals before a narrow 2-1 loss in the final to Rigford Seahawks. They followed this up with an appearance at the 2014 Bratislava Fives. They had a solid record in Group B with two wins, two draws and just the 1 defeat. Despite just this 1 defeat they only finished 4th in the table to qualify for the Plate competition. They won their Quarter-Final via penalties and faced another penalty shoot-out in the Semi-Finals but this time came unstuck to eventual Plate winners GSF Drunkerz.

Here in Lisbon they met a PPB side who started off brightly with Renato Esteves giving his side the lead in the opening period. After the break Joao Nabais made it 2-0 and the home team were off and running.

Next up was Burritos FC of England against East United of Ukraine.

Burritos FC played at the 2013 Barcelona Fives entering two teams – Burritos FC and Burritos FC with Mustard. They concentrated their powers into one squad for the 2016 Lisbon Tournament. Burritos FC were the more successful of the 2 squads in Barcelona with 6 points from 4 games to finish 3rd in their group. Both squads went out in the Quarter-Finals stage – Burrito FC to JF & The Pullbacks, the “with Mustard” squad to Trophy Winners Deportivo Dooradoyle.

The English team made a bright start here in Lisbon and were the team on the front foot for most of the early stages but it was East United who opened the scoring on a counter attack. Artur Skvortsov was the man with the goal as his team lead 1-0 at the break.

In the second half East United consolidated their lead and ensured there was no way through for a Burritos FC team that were arguably on top in open play. The game finished 1-0 and East United were off to the perfect start.

The final team to get underway in Group B was Fundacao Benfica. The team was representing the Benfica Foundation – the charity arm of Benfica who raise money for charitable causes so it was a great honour for us to host them at the 2016 Lisbon Tournament.

Fundacao Benfica would play Shrewsbury Townsend who already had a game under their belts this morning. The English team had an impressive record in the group phase of our tournaments that read played 11, won 5, drawn 4, lost 2 having scored 26 goals and conceding 9 on the way to a haul of 19 points. One of those defeats was this morning so they would be looking to avenge that as quickly as possible.

At half-time in this one we were no nearer to finding out the winners as we were locked together at 0-0. After the break we were to witness a winning goal and that goal would come from Pat Staunton of Shrewsbury Townsend. It was a vital goal for their 2016 Lisbon Tournament hopes and put their first three points on the board.

Whilst it was disappointment for Fundacao Benfica they still had 3 group games to go to get their challenge on track.

East United and PPB both came into Round 2 following victories (1-0 and 2-0 respectively). If either team could make it 2 wins out of 2 then they would be in control at the top of Group B.

East United were the second team in eurofootballfives.com history to represent Ukraine. They had tough footsteps to follow in as their predecessors, Monexy, had stormed to victory at the 2014 Barcelona Fives. East United had started well today so a second victory for Ukraine could well be a possibility.

It did not start well for East United though as it was PPB who opened the scoring when Hugo Bastos scored his first of the tournament. It was 1-0 at half-time to PPB. It was to get even better for the Portuguese team after the turnaround as Renato Esteves and Guilherme Pereira completed a fine 3-0 victory.

The game that would take us to the half-way stage in Group B was Fundacao Benfica against Burritos FC. Both teams were looking for their first points of the day and both teams could consider themselves a little unfortunate not to get anything from their opening games as both defeats were by the odd goal.

Although early in the day, a win here you felt would be essential to stake a claim for Cup qualification. 3 points would earn a share of second place in a congested mid-table. A draw or defeat would leave the teams in 4th and/or 5th position with a lot of work to do.

It was Fundacao Benfica who edged the opening period as goals from Alexandre Sargacu and Gleiber Mendes outgunned Matthew Lee's strike for Burritos FC. After the break Matthew Lee restored parity when he made it 2-2. The comeback and the hat-trick was complete for Burritos FC and Matthew Lee respectively when he made it 3-2.

It was a superb second half for Burritos and an impressive three points. There is something particularly sweet about a comeback victory and could this provide the momentum for the rest of their campaign.