We arrived at the Trophy Quarter-Final stage in what was a great opportunity for the teams finishing 5th and 6th in the morning group phase to turn their fortunes around and walk away with a trophy. Due to a couple of 5 team groups in amongst the 6 team groups, it meant that two teams would get a bye through to the Semi-Finals in the pre-determined draw. Those teams were FC Maroon and Moles Salah who were due to play each other.

On the pitch our first Quarter-Final was to be Los Swallacticos (NI) v Fail Madrid (Eng) as 5th from Group A took on 6th from Group B. Fail Madrid were hoping that their recent run of form in the knock-out phase would soon be about to change. Their last Quarter-Final win was at the 2015 Berlin Fives where they defeated Coverton Road, 1-0. Since then they had gone out in the Quarter-Finals for 4 years in a row from 2016 through to 2019. Arguably, today was not the best day to put that right as they met 2013 Barcelona Fives winners Los Swallacticos.

For the first half of play there was nothing to separate these two teams as the game remained at 0-0. As the game went on that first goal would become increasingly important and when it came it arrived via the boot of Conor Taylor. Fail Madrid had it all to do now and so often in these knock-out games the first goal can lead to two as the opponents chase the game and/or feel their hopes slipping away. The opposite can happen to the team who are 1-0 up and get a confidence boost. Los Swallacticos scored again – through Conor Taylor once more – and they had booked a place in the Semi-Finals. The Quarter-Final curse for Fail Madrid lives on.