As the 2018 Riga Tournament Cup Quarter-Finals were about to get underway we were down to the 8 top performing teams in the tournament representing England France, Lithuania and home nation Latvia. There would be 7 games which would decide who would emerge victorious and claim the 2018 Riga Tournament title.

We started on Pitch A with Lilchicago of Lithuania versus World Pinteur of France in what promised to be a thrilling encounter. Both of these teams had previously reached a eurofootballfives.com Cup Final. Lilchicago did so at the 2017 Vilnius Tournament, World Pinteur did so at the 2016 Lisbon Tournament. Both teams claimed a draw in the final before missing out on glory via penalties. Could one of these teams go all the way today?

World Pinteur were unbeaten in eurofootballfives.com tournaments (6 games in Lisbon 2016, 4 games today). They had won 6, drawn 4, scored 15 and conceded 5 goals along the way. This was going to be a really tough Quarter-Final.

Lilchicago had a 100% record and the second best goal difference of all teams from the morning group phase (+22) but the game against World Pinteur was their biggest test to date.

Lilchicago carried on from where they left off this morning with Danas Kilsauskas and Simonas Stankevicius giving them a 2-0 half-time lead. World Pinteur's record was under real threat – they gave themselves a real chance in the second period though when Pierre Lachaud scored to reduce the deficit to 2-1. The goal came too late and the Lilchicago defence proved too strong for World Pinteur though who exited the competition.

They left the competition with a pretty unique statistic. They had 7 players in the squad and all 7 players were their team's equal top scorer – with 1 goal each. #Egalite.

Riga United and Selga met in Cup Quarter-Final #2. Riga United had been the stand out team in the group phase. They had a 100% record but what really stood them apart was the sheer number of goals they scored – 34 in total. They were probably the favourites for the tournament at this stage.

Selga had qualified in the final moments of Group D when they defeated Deddington Sea Squirrels 5-4 to reach this stage. A match-up with Riga United hardly seemed a fair reward for those efforts in their final group game. It would need a monumental effort for Selga to reacgh the Semi-Finals.

Selga were on a run of 3 consecutive wins so they came into the game with good form but they were powerless to prevent Riga United continue their serene progress through the tournament.

Riga United roared into a 4-0 lead to be in full command by half-time. It was 6-1 at full-time as Selga limited the damage after the break. Janis Weilands scored his team's final goal of the tournament.

Riga United were now on 40 for the tournament with Victor Lopez Garcia scoring another hat-trick. He was running away with the golden boot award at this stage. Niels Krause, Ritvaldis Ancans and Sergey Vozdoyov were also on target for Riga United.

Quarter-Final three was Shahs of Sunset versus RFT. Shahs of Sunset were seasoned veterans in our tournaments. RFT were on debut and had quite a task ahead of them to keep their tournament campaign going.

Shahs of Sunset boasted an interesting statistic – they had now finished top (or joint top) of their group on 6 occasions in our tournaments but this was only their 4 th appearance in the Cup competition. The reason being twice they finished in a three-way tie at the top of the group but missed out on the Cup due to goal difference.

In their 3 previous Cup campaigns they had won 2 and lost 1 of their Quarter-Final ties with 2 of those 3 ties going to penalties. Penalties were maybe on the cards again as Shahs of Sunset and RFT were locked together at 1-1 at half-time. Freddie Milne (Shahs of Sunset) and Dimitrijs Sostaks (RFT) on target for their respective teams.

The score remained 1-1 for much of the second half. It looked like we would be getting penalties and indeed we did. But, it was not the final whistle and a penalty shoot-out. Instead, it was the whistle and the referee pointing to the penalty spot. It was the Shahs of Sunset penalty spot and RFT had a chance to win it in the final minute.

The penalty decision proved to be controversial. As we understand it, there was a coming together in the penalty area. The referee deemed it a foul by the defender, Shahs of Sunset saw it as the RFT attacker initiating the contact as both defender and attacker hit the deck.

Dimitrijs Sostaks stepped up to take the penalty and he duly scored to put RFT into the Semi-Finals. As the inquest about the penalty decision went on the referee advised Shahs to check the video. Nobody told the referee we do not have VAR at our tournaments…not yet anyway.

The final Quarter-Final was Paralytic Athletic against Deddington Sea Badgers. The Group D winners had reached this stage with 12 points, 12 goals and conceded just 1. The best defensive record of the tournament so far. Paralytic Athletic were in their third eurofootballfives.com tournament and it was now 3 qualifications for the Cup. So far they had a 100% record in the Quarter-Finals with a win over defending champions Meglepetes at this stage of the 2017 Budapest Fives and a 1-0 win over Spider Mans 1s at the 2016 Amsterdam Fives.

Deddington Sea Badgers qualified for the Cup for the first time at the second time of asking. Deddington won the Plate at the 2017 Krakow Trophy, could they add the 2018 Riga Tournament Cup win to their collection?

If they were to do so they would need to come from behind as Will Hurditch put Paralytic Athletic in front shortly before half-time. Rob Bradford equalized for Deddington Sea Badgers early in the second period. There was to be no further score as the game finished 1-1. Penalties would be required!

Paralytic Athletic had been involved in 3 previous penalty shoot-outs in our tournaments – won 1, lost 2. Deddington had been involved in 1 shoot-out which they won.

The first men up were Jack Veness (Paralytic Athletic) and Joe Thornton (Deddington Sea Badgers) and both despatched their penalties. 1-1 in normal time, 1-1 in penalties.

Up next were James Clark (Paralytic Athletic) and Mike Large (Deddington Sea Badgers) who were both equally successful. 1-1 in normal time, 2-2 in penalties.

It was the final round of penalties that proved decisive. John Bird (Deddington Sea Badgers) scored where James Moysey (Paralytic Athletic) missed. Rob Hull was the hero in the Deddington goal as his team marched on to the Semi-Finals.

It was heartbreak for Paralytic Athletic. In all 3 of their eurofootballfives.com adventures they had gone out via penalties. In those 3 tournaments they had only lost 1 game in normal time – surely a victory had to be on the cards soon.