As the 2017 Vilnius Tournament Cup Quarter-Finals were about to get underway we were down to the 8 top performing teams in the tournament representing Belarus, France, England and home nation Lithuania. There would be 7 games which would decide who would emerge victorious and claim the inaugural Vilnius Tournament title.

We started on Pitch A with The A Team versus Skidmarks as France met England. Skidmarks had two tournament wins under their belts (2011 Valencia Fives and 2012 Krakow Trophy). The A Team had two tournament runners-up finishes on their CV (2013 Krakow Trophy and 2015 Bratislava Fives). This may suggest that Skidmarks might have the edge in this game.

The A Team did have a winner in their ranks with Fateh Behouche being a part of the Grant Thornton/L'Albiceleste team that won the 2013 Mallorca Fives and 2016 Riga Tournament. The 2013 Mallorca Fives is notable because that win in the Cup Final was against Skidmarks. Could the English team get their revenge on Fateh Bekhouche?

We had two strong defences on show and two good goalkeepers in the form of Walid (The A Team) and Paul Mulvey (Skidmarks). In fact, The A Team had kept 3 clean sheets in 4 games so far. It was perhaps no surprise then that we reached half-time at 0-0. 0-0 at half-time became 0-0 at full-time and the teams would need to bring their penalty skills to the fore in order to advance to the next stage.

Skidmarks had a 75% win record in penalty shoot-outs in our tournaments so would go into this with some confidence. The A Team only had experience of one penalty shoot-out in our tournaments to draw upon. That came over 3 years ago at the 2014 Mallorca Tournament in the Plate Quarter-Finals. After a 2-2 draw with Spanish side Con Bun they won the shoot-out 3-2.

It would be Skidmarks to strike the first blow here. Luke Hatfield was to take it and score it. The A Team equalized for 1-1. Iain Congdon failed to convert and The A Team took full advantage to go 2-1 in front. Ash Britten scored to make it 2-2 but The A Team couldn't finish the job and we would need sudden death. Neil Taylor went to the goalkeeper's right and make it 4-3. It meant Daminho had to score to keep his team in it. He went down the middle but Paul Mulvey pulled off the crucial save.

Skidmarks were through to the Semi-Final as we updated our records to show an 80% success rate in shoot-outs.

Burritos FC and Lilchicago met in Cup Quarter-Final #2. Both teams had reached the Cup competition for the second time in their eurofootballfives.com careers. Burritos reached the Semi-Final in Lisbon last year, Lilchicago made it to the Quarter-Final earlier this year in Mallorca.

For the second time in as many years Burritos FC had topped their 5-team group with a haul of 9 points. Lilchicago had finished second in their group here on 7 points and would start the game as slight underdogs. It was Burritos FC who took the lead as Lincoln Chawora scored with a great finish under pressure from the last defender and goalkeeper before embarking on his increasingly familiar goal celebration. The strike put Burritos FC in charge going into the change of ends.

It looked like that goal might be enough to win it as Burritos remained 1-0 up for most of the second half but there was a sting in the tail. Sarunas Krasauskas scored a late equalizer to make it 1-1 and send the game into a penalty shoot-out.

Lilchicago may well have entered the shoot-out with trepidation as they went out at this same stage via penalties in Mallorca. It was Burritos FC to shoot first….

Matthew Lee was the first man to step forward but he dragged his penalty wide. Sarunas Krasauskas must have been brimming with confidence after his equalizer but he handed Burritos FC a reprieve shooting straight at the goalkeeper. William Noden read the penalty well to make the save.

Lincoln Chawora, with 3 goals to his name today, was up next. He struck his penalty to the goalkeeper's left. Justinas Stonys chose the right way and made the save. Vaidas Garsvinskas broke the deadlock by coolly slotting the ball into the bottom right-hand corner to make it advantage Lilchicago.

Andrew Monaghan simply had to score to keep Burritos in it…and he did. He won the mind games with the ‘keeper - Stonys was unmoved as Monaghan struck it to the right hand side of the goal. Captain Danas Kulisauskas had the chance to win it for Lilchicago but William Noden was up to the job. He got down quickly to keep the strike out. It was 1-1 and time for sudden death.

Joe Taylor went for power as he went down the middle. The ball was heading under the bar until Stonys raised an arm to tip it over. Lilchicago had a second chance to win it with Lukas Melaika the man with the task to take his team's fourth penalty. He went for the curler but he curled it wide of the post. Burritos FC were still alive!

As we went down the squad lists it was Andrew Perris up next. His penalty was similar to Joe Taylor's before. It was a power penalty high and down the middle but Stonys was equal to it as he palmed it over again.

Lilchicago had a third chance to win it. Martynas Vyzintas had the weight of pressure on his shoulders but he made no mistake. A firmly struck penalty to the bottom left saw the net bulge and Lilchicago progress to the next stage.

We had to say goodbye to Burritos FC and would like to thank Joe Taylor for organizing his troops once again. We hope you enjoyed your visit to Vilnius.

Quarter-Final three was CIS Committee versus FC United of Bob. CIS were seasoned veterans in our tournaments. FC United of Bob were on debut and had quite a task ahead of them to keep their tournament campaign going.

CIS Committee had 3 previous tournament wins under their belts and were hunting down #4. They had played 46 games in eurofootballfives.com competition and lost just 1 along the way (the 2015 Budapest Fives Cup Final). They had a 100% record in the group phase today, scored 11 and conceded just 2.

FC United of Bob could match their illustrious opponents in the defensive stakes. In fact they could better it as they had conceded just 1 with Sam Fielden and his defenders boasting 3 clean sheets in 4 games. If they could score against CIS they had every chance of going through.

CIS Committee had only failed at the Quarter-Final stage once – all the way back on their debut in Prague in 2011. They went out on Golden Goal after a draw. It looked like they were in no mood to repeat that Quarter-Final exit as they made a strong start to this fixture. Pavel Tumash opened the scoring and Aliaksandr Viazhevich doubled the lead to give the team from Belarus a commanding position in the tie.

FC United of Bob had it all to do in the second half. CIS Committee know how to shut up shop though. Rarely do you see CIS pummel teams by 4, 5 or 6. They don't risk winning games by unnecessarily chasing goals (they are the anti-Arsenal). They keep possession and make themselves difficult to break down.

FC United of Bob were unable to find a way through their opponents defence and CIS Committee went on to complete a 2-0 victory.

For FC United of Bob the debut was over but it was an impressive debut. Of the travelling English teams, only previous two-times winners Skidmarks would go further in the tournament.

The final Quarter-Final was Funfoot against FK Prienai. The Group D winners had reached this stage with 12 points, 10 goals and conceded just 1. If they could secure a fifth victory they would become the second Lithuanian team in the Semi-Finals. In fact, we were guaranteed another Lithuanian team going through as this was a home nation derby. They would play an FK Prienai team who had won 3 and lost 1 of their 4 games to date.

FK Prienai had reached this same stage last year at the 2016 Riga Tournament. 12 months ago they looked like a team that could win the whole event having won Group B but they came unstuck against CAP FC (2-0). Could they go one step further this time?

There was little between the teams at the start of the game and they could not be divided as we entered half-time level at 0-0. The game remained tight going into the second half and in fact just one goal would win it. Cometh the hour, cometh the man and that man was Aivaras Meskinis.

Meskinis was getting quite a reputation around the tournament as a goal-scoring goalkeeper. He had already scored the winner in two 1-0 victories in the group phase and he was to make it 3 goals in 3 x 1-0 wins here in the Cup Quarter-Final stage.

We had to say farewell to FK Prienai for the second year in a row and would like to thank them for supporting our tournaments in Riga and Vilnius. We hope they will be able to join us again next season when hopefully it will be third time lucky for them to progress to a Cup Semi-Final. For now, Funfoot marched on….