Welcome to the 2017 Vilnius Post-Tournament Report – a great day was had by all we witnessed some cracking football played in a superb atmosphere. The tournament was #91 for us in Europe and marked our debut in Lithuania so we were very excited to head over to the Baltics and experience the city.

We had 20 teams booked up and the group phase of the tournament would consist of four groups with 5 teams in each group. The teams finishing 1 st and 2 nd in each group will progress to the Cup competition. The teams finishing 3rd and 4th in each group will progress to the Plate competition. Both the Cup and Plate would be played on a knock-out basis with Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final.

The teams finishing 5 th in each group will play for the Wooden Spoon on a semi-final and final basis.

We began the day's action on Pitch A with Group A. It was The A Team (Fra) versus LMH FC (Eng). On our one previous visit to the Baltics (the 2016 Riga Tournament) there was success for France as L'Albiceleste won the tournament. Fateh Bekhouche was part of that squad in Riga and he was part of The A Team squad here in Vilnius. The team from Paris found LMH FC a tough nut to crack and we reached full-time with both defences on top.

The two teams played out a 0-0 draw. It was a solid start to the tournament for both teams.

Next up was Wealdstone Raiders versus FC United of Bob. Wealdstone Raiders (Eng) were making appearance #2 in eurofootballfives.com competition. They made their debut at the 2015 Barcelona Fives where they finished third in Group C. They qualified for the Plate competition and met ABCDE FC in the Quarter-Finals. A 3-1 defeat saw them depart the competition. How would they get on in Vilnius?

Their opponents, FC United of Bob, were making their debut in European competition and had a blank canvas upon which to paint their footballing artistry. It was FC United of Bob who scored the first goal of Group A. Sam Keogh was the man with the proud honour of scoring their first goal on the international scene. FC United of Bob would earn full value from the goal as it proved to be the only goal of the game.

The 1-0 win sent FC United of Bob to the top of the embryonic Group A table. It was the perfect start for their European campaign.

The final team to get underway was VSG United of Lithuania. They were also making their eurofootballfives.com debut. They were up against The A Team who were looking to kick-on from their opening game point against LMH FC.

The A Team were making their sixth eurofootballfives.com appearance after a debut in the 2013 Krakow Trophy. They were on course for victory leading the Cup Final 1-0 before Budapest Celtic came back to win 2-1. They followed this up at the 2014 Budapest Fives – an injury ravaged squad finished 3 rd in the group before a Plate Semi-Final exit to 2-times Cup champions and eventual Plate winners – FC Radbroke. A second European trip of 2014 saw them fly to the Mallorca Tournament. They finished 3 rd in their group again – a group which featured the 2011 winners, Palma Select, and also the Plate Runners-Up of the 2013 Lisbon Tournament, FC Dynamoes. They qualified for the Plate winning their Quarter-Final 3-2 on penalties over Spain's Con Bun but then lost out to another Spanish team, Brioche, in the Semi-Finals.

Their next appearance was at the 2015 Bratislava Fives where they went all the way to the Cup Final for the second time. Like the first time though they narrowly missed out on the ultimate prize. This time they lost 1-0 to Slovakian side GSF Drunkerz. Last year they appeared at the 2016 Prague Tournament where they finished second in Group B behind CIS Committee (Blr). They went on to the Cup Semi-Finals where they exited the tournament at the hands of Team Extreme (4-1).

The team from Paris earned their first victory of the day against VSG United. The Lithuanian team helped their travelling opponents with two own goals. Kostas Salnikovas was the unfortunate man who put through his own net not once but twice. Daminho also scored for The A Team as they won 3-0.

LMH FC (Eng) began their eurofootballfives.com career last year at the 2016 Budapest Fives. They got off to the perfect start with a 1-0 win over Hungarian side Fejlodes. Their form trailed off against Athletic Pasty, FC Broxelona B (both Eng) and then CIS Committee (Blr) before a 1-1 draw against Hungarians Budapest Celtic Hoops. They missed out on the knock-out phase by 2 points.

They had opened up today with a 0-0 draw and now faced Wealdstone Raiders. Wealdstone Raiders suffered a narrow 1-0 loss in their opening fixture and were looking to bounce back quickly.

Both teams were looking for their first goals of the tournament and their wait to break their duck would have to continue. Neither team were able to successfully breach their opponents defence.

For LMH FC it was a second clean sheet and second goal-less draw of the day. For Wealdstone Raiders it was a first shut-out and their first point on the board.

The game that took us to the halfway stage in Group A was FC United of Bob versus VSG United. If FC United of Bob could build upon their opening victory and add another 3 points then they would go to the top of the table with a two point lead.

VSG United were looking to avenge a 3-0 defeat to The A Team. If they could pick up a win then they would surge from 5th to a share of 2nd position. The Lithuanian team would need to stop helping their opponents though. They scored two own goals in the first game and there was another one here with Jerzy Kleminsky ajudged by the referee to have scored past his own goalkeeper. The goal was referred to our very own dubious goals panel and credited to Aaron Cartwright who claimed the goal for his strike before Kleminsky's intervention.

With the goal in the bank, the impressive FC United of Bob defence thwarted their opponents and went on to keep their second clean sheet of the day. It was another 1-0 win for the English team and they were our Group A leaders.