Plate Semi-Final time and things were getting interesting. First up was Dickie Dogs versus Pioes. Both teams had played in the 2013 Lisbon Tournament but in separate competitions – Dickie Dogs finished 7th in the Veterans section, Pioes got to a Cup Semi-Final in the Open Age section.

Here in 2016, Dickie Dogs finished 3rd in Group A on 7 points with 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats with a +2 goal difference. Pioes were similar finishing 4th in Group B with 8 points, 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat1. They had a goal difference of +3. Both teams had scored 4 goals in the group phase but Pioes had conceded just the 1 to Dickie Dogs 2. The two teams appeared to have the same defensive strength but could have done with bagging some extra goals.

Dickie Dogs had previous experience in the Plate competition of our Veterans tournament. They reached the final at the 2014 Mallorca Veterans but narrowly missed out on success to €agles 3:36. A win here and they would be in a second final.

It was Pioes that took the early advantage though as they opened the scoring courtesy of a Rui Fernandes goal. 1-0 became 2-0 when Bruno Bambo doubled the lead and put Pioes in control at half-time. After the break a third goal was arguably the killer strike when Joaquim Lopes completed a 3-0 victory.

It was to be a first eurofootballfives.com final for Pioes as we reluctantly bid farewell to Dickie Dogs in the 2016 Lisbon Tournament.

The second Semi-Final was an encounter between Mavericks and Crabtree Amblers.

Mavericks were one of just two teams this morning to go through the group phase unbeaten so they can consider themselves unfortunate that they had not qualified for the Cup. It did make them arguably the favourites for the Plate though. This was Mavericks second Plate Semi-Final after reaching the same stage in the 2012 Valencia Fives where they went out on penalties.

Crabtree Amblers would be no pushovers though – they recorded a haul of 7 points from their games in Group A and had one of the best defensive records in terms of clean sheets (equal with their opponents) as they had kept 3 of them so far today.

It was Crabtree Amblers who took the early lead in this one as James Myers found the back of the net. The signs were ominous for Mavericks as Crabtree Amblers had gone on to win every game in which they had taken the lead so far. We reached half-time with the score still 1-0.

The second half came and went with Chris Gates preserving his fourth clean sheet of the day ably assisted by an inspired defence. Mavericks threw everything at their opponents to retain their place at the tournament but their first defeat of the day came at just the wrong time. It was tough on Mavericks who had played well all day but sadly they were out for this year.