We were now at the business end of the tournament and into the knock-out stage of the 2012 Mallorca Tournament. Lose now and it was the end of the day from a football perspective.

The first Quarter-Final would be contested by Olympic Phil Babb and Inextremes. Olympic Phil Babb would surely have to be favourites for the match and the entire Plate competition. It is still a bit of a shock to see the 4-times Cup Winners in the Plate competition but that is testimony to how strong the tournament line up was.

Olympic Phil Babb had started the day well with 3 victories on the spin and then suffered 2 defeats in succession that saw them slip to 3 rd place in their group. Before today, Olympic Phil Babb had only lost 1 game since their 2008 debut so 2 in a row was unheard of. Inextremes were given little chance of winning this having drawn 1 and lost 4 of their group games scoring just 1 goal and conceding 11 in the process.

It is therefore no understatement when we say what followed was one of the major shocks in eurofootballfives.com history as Vicente Cabrera Pastor put Inextremes 1-0 up. Bernat Sanjo Gonzalez made it 2-0 before half-time and Olympic Phil Babb had it all to do. Inextremes were not finished there as David Lopez Sastie scored his second of the day and Boria Luna Sanchee opened his tournament account. Olympic Phil Babb replied with a goal from Alex Woolston but in the end they were gunned down 4-1….an unbelievable result.

Next up was El Combe Old Boys versus Pricers Whiteley All Stars. So far, the teams who had qualified for the Plate with the best records had struggled and gone out. El Combe Old Boys would be hoping to put this record straight as they were looking for a second Plate title following their victory as Vodafone FC in the 2010 Algarve Open. Standing in their way was Whiteley FC who also played in the 2010 Algarve tournament although the teams paths did not cross.

Pricers Whiteley All Stars were yet to win a game but did have two draws behind them and so would be no pushovers. El Combe Old Boys were on a run of 2 consecutive wins and would come into this game with confidence of making it three in a row. Things were looking good at half-time when Andrew Hampshire scored his third of the day to give them a 1-0 lead. It would not be good enough for victory though as Chris Rose leveled things up at 1-1 and that's how it finished. A third draw for Pricers Whiteley All Stars – seemingly draw specialists at this tournament.

So, we arrived at the dreaded penalty shoot-out and there was some quality penalty taking on show as after the three regulation penatlies each we were all square at 3-3. It was the first round of sudden death penalties that proved decisive – El Combe Old Boys scored, Pricers Whiteley All Stars missed and it was the former who would progress.

The fourth Plate Quarter-Final would be contested by Norton Hill Old Boys and AFC Ramos. Momentum is a strong factor in our tournaments and if you considered this a decisive factor you would predict Norton Hill Old Boys as the winners. Following three heavy defeats they had turned their form around to pick-up 4 points out of 6 in their last two fixtures. By contrast AFC Ramos had started off with a win but since slipped to four defeats.

If you wanted to see goals this was the game of the round to watch! There were six of them in the first-half alone and Norton Hill Old Boys scored the bulk of them as they lead 4-2 at the break. In the second half there was a goal each to make the score 5-3 and Norton Hill Old Boys were through.

For Norton, there was 2 more goals for Mark Paget (5 for the day now), two goals for Lee Baverstock and one for Richard Jones. Nick McNally scored twice for AFC Ramos giving him a fine return of 6 goals in 6 games for his tournament and Jon Lewis turned in his first goal of the competition. Sadly for AFC Ramos, it was game over for the day.