Welcome to the eurofootballfives.com Veterans Tournament Post-Tournament Report – Lisbon 2017.

The eurofootballfives Veterans Tournament has proved so popular that we decided to have 2 Veterans tournaments per year from 2017 with one in early summer and one in late Summer. The 2017 Lisbon Veterans Tournament marked our first ever late September Vets event and was the third time in 6 events that Lisbon had staged the tournament for the 35+ section.

The 2017 Lisbon Veterans Tournament would be decided on a group basis. There would be two groups with 6 teams in each group. Each team would play each other team in their group once and therefore 5 group games. After which, depending on position, they will progress to the Cup or Plate competition.

The teams finishing 1st and 2nd in each group would progress to the Cup competition. The teams finishing 3rd and 4th in each group would progress to the Plate competition. Both the Cup and the Plate would be played as a knock-out phase with Semi-Finals and Final. The teams finishing 5th and 6th in each group would be eliminated at this stage.

We'll preview the teams in more detail as we progress with this report but the first game up was The Special Ones versus Telferscot Athletic. These were two teams who played at the 2016 Barcelona Fives although did not meet directly. Both has chosen to move up to the Vets category for 2017.

It was Telferscot Athletic who emerged victorious as they raced to a 3-0 lead. Robert Gill (2) and Mick Maroussas were both on target before Neil Collett pulled one back for The Special Ones. Final score, 3-1.

Next up was Compact Records versus Talhos Mariete. Both teams were representing Portugal with Compact Records making the journey from Porto whilst Talhos Mariete were local to Lisbon. It was two teams on debut so both teams had a blank canvas on which to paint their footballing artistry. Who would rise to the occasion?

It was first blood to Talhos Mariete as Bruno Clemente put his side 1-0 up. Compact Records were back level before half-time though when Nuno Moreira pulled his team level.

The second half kicked off at 1-1 but would not end that way. Hilario Aivis would score the game's third goal and the winning goal of the tie. The two teams both looked to be on high quality so this looked a particularly good win for Compact Records.

The final fixture in the opening round of Group A was Saga Louts versus FC Miracle. These were two teams who were very familiar to eurofootballfives.com competition. Saga Louts were making their 9th eurofootballfives.com appearance and FC Miracle were making their 6th appearance. Both were appearing in the Veterans tournament for the first time though.

Of the two teams FC Miracle would no doubt start favourites as they had a eurofootballfives.com title to their name which was the 2012 Valencia Fives. In fact, the two teams met at this tournament in the Cup Quarter-Final with FC Miracle defeating Saga Louts, 4-2.

Saga Louts had 2 players who played in that game (Ian Mansley, Jason Carr) appearing here today. 3 other players from that 2012 squad were also here in Lisbon but playing for sister squad Where's Dave (Dom Vicos, Chris Weedon and Roy McConnell). For FC Miracle there were 3 surviving squad members and it would be they were victorious again.

Laszlo Zsolt was the main man on this occasion as he bagged a first half hat-trick. FC Miracle would be the early leaders of Group A.