Results
 

Mitre FC A (Eng)

1

V

0

RSC Andylecht (Eng)

John Arne Riise's Pieces (Eng)

2

V

0

Bjorn Helge Riise's Pieces (Eng)

 

We were down to our final 4 teams in the Plate competition. The first Semi-Final would see Mitre FC A versus RSC Andylecht. These two teams had met before in the group phase and played out a 1-1 draw so we expected a close contest.

RSC Andylecht were making their fourth appearance in our tournaments and so far reached the 2018 Algarve Open Cup QF, 2019 Amsterdam Sixes Plate SF and 2022 Mallorca Fives Cup QF. They were bidding to reach their first eurofootballfives.com final.

Mitre FC A were on debut and made a sensational first impression to date. They had 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat so far and were the second top scorers in the tournament with 16 goals.

When these two teams met before it was RSC Andylecht that hit the front but on this occasion it was Samuele Pagano who put Mitre FC A 1-0 up. Pagano had scored the equalizer in their previous match but this time he was to score the winner. As well as scoring plenty of goals, Mitre FC A kept 4 clean sheets in the group phase so were defensively sound. That defence proved solid again as Ryan Reynolds kept clean sheet number 5 – the second best in the tournament (after Club Esportiu Llefia) and the best of all the teams in the Plate.

The match finished 1-0 and RSC Andylecht were out, just shy of a maiden final.

 
 
 

The second Plate Semi-Final was the Riise's Pieces derby, John Arne versus Bjorn Helge.

It is not often teams from the same club meet in eurofootballfives competition but, when they do, these derby matches often have a strange atmosphere – sometimes the games can have a bit too much intensity with players determined not to lose to their tour-mates or sometimes the games can lack a little intensity. We didn't think the latter would be the case with a European final at stake not to mention bragging rights for the rest of the Barcelona tour and beyond. 

This was the first time their two squads had met in our events. Whatever happened in this game, Riise's Pieces would be guaranteed a third eurofootballfives.com Plate Final having reached the same stage in Lisbon in 2018 and 2022.

The two teams had both played well today and we expected a close game. If I was a betting man I would have put a tenner on the result of this game being 1-0 but I am not sure which team I would have backed. After the early running it looked like that money should have gone on John Arne Riise's Pieces as Jack Utting opened his account for the day. 1-0 became 2-0 when Chris Maydom had his third goal of the tournament and sealed the place in the final for the John Arne squad.

Bjorn Helge Riise's Pieces would watch, cheer on or heckle their tour-mates in the Plate Final. It's also a good job I'm not a betting man otherwise I'd have lost my tenner (or a bucket of 5 San Miguels at the post-tournament social).

 
 
 
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