The teams in Group C had seen those in Group A and Group B begin their campaigns. It was now time for the Group C teams to step onto the fields of play and have their turn in the spotlight. On Pitch A we began with Me Toca Tirar versus Farcelona.

Both of these teams were making their debut in eurofootballfives.com competition although there was one player on the pitch who had eurofootballfives.com experience to bring to proceedings. It was Ignacio Mochales who took to the field for Me Toca Tirar – he had previously played for Ireland's Saipan FC and was part of the 2015 Mallorca Tournament winning squad and he also claimed individual honours (also playing for Saipan FC) at this year's 2016 Algarve Open where he was the top goalscorer.

There were no goals in this one for Ignacio “Nacho” Mochales but it didn't matter too much from a team perspective as Alejandro Del Hierro proved to be more than able in the goal-scoring stakes. He scored all four as Me Toca Tirar raced to a 4-0 lead.

David Novoa completed the scoring at 5-0 to complete a perfect start for Me Toca Tirar. For Farcelona it was a tough beginning to life at the Barcelona Fives but it was obviously still early days.

On Pitch B we had two more teams making their eurofootballfives.com tournament bow. John Laing (Eng) and Beercalona (Ire) were 2 of 18 teams making their debut in our tournaments today and all were very welcome additions to our tournament scene.

At this point we should probably note we had two very similarly named teams in the tournament draw – Beercalona (Ire) and Beercelona (Eng). The two teams were entirely separate and a subtle spelling difference and the country of residence were what differentiated them. In Group C, it was the Irish team from Dublin competing.

With the match underway it was John Laing who struck first as Billy Mills claimed their opening goal at the Barcelona Fives. Beercalona hit back through Paul Sherlock to make it 1-1 but they were not level for too long though. David Goodwin's goal ensured John Laing would go back in front and the goal proved to be the winner. Final score, 2-1 to John Laing.

The teams to begin their campaign on Pitch C in Group C were Elcombe Old Boys (Eng) and Argon'ze (Fra).

Elcombe Old Boys were very well known to eurofootballfives competition and particularly the Barcelona Fives. This was their fourth successive appearance in Barcelona which was a record for a travelling team. In fact, it was a record for a travelling team across all our destinations beating Belarus's CIS Committee's three successive appearances at the Budapest Fives, The Rain Dragons three successive appearances at the Amsterdam Fives and the Wafty Crankers three appearances in Prague (2008, 2011 & 2016).

Argon'ze were a team on debut but did feature Vincent Cafiero in their team – he had played for the Centrale Paris team that competed at our 2015 Mallorca Tournament. As part of that team he reached the Cup Quarter-Finals before going out to Saipan FC of Ireland in the Cup Quarter-Finals.

Today was a solid but unspectacular start for both teams. Andrew Gartshore (Elcombe Old Boys) and Sebastien Malignon (Argon'ze) both kept clean sheets so it was point for each team, 0-0.

We had two more debutant teams getting their tournament challenge underway on Pitch D with Skackney FC (NZ) versus Leave It FC (Eng).

Skackney FC became the second team to represent New Zealand in our tournaments – 9 years after the first. At the 2007 Prague Masters (which was only our second tournament ever) the Fighting Pukekos became the first team to wear the silver fern on their chest. The Fighting Pukekos struggled with 1 win and 5 defeats in Prague but the win they secured was emphatic, 6-0. How would Skackney FC perform today?

It proved to be a tight and evenly matched contest and, as with the game on Pitch C, goals were conspicuous by their absence. It was not for the want of trying though as both teams showed attacking intent but both were thwarted by their opposing defences and especially the goalkeepers. Rohan Koshai had a particularly good game between the sticks for Leave It FC to keep his clean sheet as Skackney FC possibly had the greater share of the attacking play and they would arguably be more disappointed with the point than their opponents.