Group B was looking very interesting and there was a whole clutch of teams locked together on 4 points from second down to fifth. In golf, the third round is often described as “moving day”. Would Round 3 at the Lisbon Tournament be “moving day” in Group B as these teams looked to boost their Cup qualification chances.

Up first we had two of those teams on 3 points, Galacticos and OS Sadinos. If you wanted to see goals then Galacticos were the team to watch with 9 goals in their games so far. OS Sadinos matches had been a little sedate with 1-0 wins (1 for, 1 against). You felt if this game opened up it could go the way of Galacticos, if the game remained low scoring it could go either way.

The match followed the OS Sadinos trajectory and just the one goal decided it. The man with the goal was Hamza Patel who won the game offensively for Galacticos. A credit to Zuber Bulbulia and his defence at the other end for a clean sheet that also contributed to the vital 3 points.

To complete Round 3 we had Fail Madrid versus The Basemen. Due to the pandemic postponing the Lisbon Tournament from 2020 to 2021 and again to 2022, it mean the 2019 Budapest Fives was the last time we saw Fail Madrid in action. In an intriguing group they produced 3 wins and 3 defeats to finish as one of 3 teams on 9 points in joint third position. Goal difference meant they had to settle for 5 th and a place in the Plate competition. In the Quarter-Finals they met 3 Lions Touching Cloth which resulted in their first draw of the tournament, 0-0. A penalty shoot-out would ensue but Fail Madrid lost 1-0 on spot-kicks. It was their 3rd exit in 5 years on a dreaded shoot-out.

It had been a slower than hoped for start for Fail Madrid but with 3 games to go all was not lost but they needed something from this game. The Basemen came into the game having just secured their first win and if they could follow that up with another would go joint second in the table. The momentum was with The Basemen as they opened up a 1-0 lead. However, Fail Madrid would halt them in their tracks with an equalizer from Rob Maller.

It was a point on the board for Fail Madrid to start moving up the table. The draw left The Basemen in third place and 2 points off the Cup qualification places.