Results
 

Yac Club (Eng)

0*

V

0

FC Maroon (Eng)

FC Foreigntina (Eng)

0

v

0*

Alea Iacta Est (Pol)

* Yac Club won 3-2 on penalties.

* Alea Iacta Est won 6-5 on penalties. 
 

We were at the 2020 Warsaw Tournament Cup Semi-Final stage and from the 11 teams who started the day we were down to the final 4 – already an achievement for those who were still in the hunt for glory. The first Cup Semi-Final would see Yac Club versus FC Maroon.

 

Yac Club were the only team in the tournament with an undefeated record and 4 wins from 5 games. They were the team to beat. FC Maroon would be no pushovers though. At one stage in our tournaments they went 24 goals without reply (group phase only) and a run of just 1 defeat in 14 games from Riga 2016 to Gdansk 2018. Today, they had 2 wins, 1 draw and a loss in the group phase.

 

These two teams met at the 2016 Riga Tournament – just before that run started. Nick Pocock scoring the goal in a 1-0 win for Yac Club (their very first game in eurofootballfives.com action). This game was similarly tight and, like many of the knockout games today, the action came in the form of a penalty shoot-out.

 

FC Maroon were looking to set an unfortunate record straight. They had so far played in 3 penalty shoot-outs in our tournaments but were yet to progress. They had gone out in our tournaments on pens at the 2016 Riga Tournament, 2018 Gdansk Tournament & the 2019 Barcelona Fives. They were up first with Max Hill who got them off to a good start, 1-0. Yac Club levelled it up through Dom Morgan before Lewis Hubbard re-established the lead for FC Maroon, 2-1. The perfect run of spot-kicks continued with Nick Pocock making it 2-2.

 

Luke Burnett was the first man to miss as Mitch Taht made the save. Connor Pasty had the chance to win it but he hit the post so it was still game on. Ed Brangwin had the chance to put FC Maroon ahead but a combination of Mitch That and the woodwork kept the ball out. Dave Netherway was the next man up to the spot with our goals in the tournament to date. He made no mistake and powered Yac Club into the Cup Final. It was another cruel exit for FC Maroon.

 
 
 

So, who would take their place in the Final from the second Semi-Final? The two teams set to do battle were FC Foreigntina (Pol) against Alea Iacta Est (Pol).

 

These two teams met in the group stage of the 2018 Gdansk Tournament. It was Alea Iacta Est who opened up a 2-0 lead on that occasion but FC Foreigntina hit back to make it 2-2 and take a point each. The teams went on to finish joint top of that group with 11 points each. Even goal difference couldn't split them (+3) so it came down to goals scored with FC Foreigntina (12) finishing above Alea Iacta Est (8).

 

Given how close the teams were in Gdansk it was perhaps no surprise that this was such a close contest here in Warsaw. As with 2 of the 3 semi-finals today this also finished 0-0 and penalties would ensue.

 

Alea Iacta would go first with Jakub Szlezingier making it 1-0 but Neil Riley immediately equalized for 1-1. Michal Sklodowski made it 2-1 before David Ingham pulled his shot wide. Konrad Kawka made it 3-1 and the shoot-out should have ended there. However, the referee must have thought it was 5 pens each instead of 3 and so we carried on. Joao Puga made it 3-2 to reduce the deficit. Krzystzof Kurzeja made it 4-2 only for Yaniv Rosenberg to pull it back to 4-3. Michal Dlugopolski made it 5-3 and that should have been it…but still we went on. Fernando Sousa made it 5-4 before Pawel Szymanski missed for Alea Iacta Est. Richard Harrison levelled it up at 5-5. Jakub Szlezingier scored again for Alea to make it 6-5 before Neil Riley missed. Finally the shoot-out was over! We are not sure what happened there as the referees notes and the photographic captured the entire shoot-out, the two tally. Whatever did happen, the correct team went through and the ref needs a lie down!

 
 
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