We began Group C with Cruz Del Sur A versus One Calamski.

Cruz Del Sur made their debut at the 2012 Barcelona Fives as Banter Bus FC and it was a fine debut. They finished 2nd in their 5 team group behind Budapest Celtic Lions before going out to eventual winners Black Sheep of Spain in the Cup Quarter-Finals. In Hungary 12 months later they make a twin-pronged attack on the 2013 Budapest Fives title with two teams – BBFC1 and BBFC2. The teams finished 3rd and 5th in their respective groups meaning they had a team in the Cup and the Plate. BBFC1 went out on penalties in the Cup Quarter-Finals whilst BBFC2 picked up a 1-0 win in the Plate Quarters before a Semi-Final exit at the hands of Meglepetes – a good Hungarian side who made the Cup Semi-Finals in 2015 and won the Budapest Fives in 2016.

July 2015 saw them rebranded as Cruz Del Sur A and B and travel to Amsterdam where storm Zejko defeated all teams. The teams finished 3rd and 4th in their groups in hugely challenging conditions before the Code Red weather warning curtailed the day's activities. We'll be keeping everything crossed for clement weather in Riga!

We will preview their opponents, One Calamski, in more detail later in this report.

The two teams played out a fairly even contest in the first half and when the referee blew for the break we remained at 0-0. There was to be a goal in the second half and it came from Cruz Del Sur A's Samuel Cassidy…..the final score was 1-0 and they were up and running in Riga.

The last two teams to get underway were Riga United versus Red Cow Belgrade.

Red Cow Belgrade make their fifth appearance in eurofootballfives.com competition. They made their debut with us at the 2013 Budapest Fives and finished 4th in their 6-team group – a group that featured both the eventual finalists. They then played in the 2014 Algarve Open where they slipped to 6th in Group B and were eliminated at this phase of the tournament. They were much improved at the 2014 Barcelona Fives where 3 wins out of 4 in the group phase saw them finish 2nd in Group C behind Spain's Prospe FC. 2 nd in most tournaments is Cup qualification but in Barcelona it meant the Plate would await Red Cow Belgrade. They started off the knock-out phase well with a 3-0 win over BCN Raiders and then a 0-0 draw with ADP Netherlands in the Semi-Finals. They were victorious via penalties and met Naranjitos of Spain in the Final. Sadly for Red Cow Belgrade they couldn't quite get over the line and had to settle for Runners-Up medals after a 2-0 defeat.

In 2015 they featured at the Lisbon Tournament where they struggled in the group phase and qualified for the Trophy. In the Quarter-Finals, a second penalty shoot-out win in @eurofootball5's action led us to check their passports to see if they were actually English – they were. They progressed to the Semi-Final to defeat Where's Dave? 1-0. In the Trophy Final they met Frank Hirth A and after a 1-1 draw had to settle for Runners Up medals again as their true Englishness in penalty shoot-outs came to the fore.

It was Riga United who got off to the brighter start as Ronny Farah made it 1-0 to the local team. In the second half Red Cow Belgrade launched a great comeback. Despite a second goal for Riga United's Ronny Farah, goals from Joe Howitt (2) and Thomas Goyski ensured it would be the English team who picked up all three points.