Round 2 began with the 7th and final team in Group B to get underway. It was AFC Shooters who would start their campaign against Dickie Dogs. Both teams played at our 2015 Algarve Open tournament but didn't meet on that occasion as AFC Shooters were in the Open Age section of the draw whilst Dickie Dogs were competing in the Veterans category. AFC Shooters had success on that day 8 years ago as they won the Plate Final with a superb 3-0 win over Mavericks.

AFC Shooters would meet a Dickie Dogs team that had already warmed up with a 0-0 draw against Cheesecake FC. AFC Shooters knew they would be up against a well organized team with a good goalkeeper and so it proved again. Dickie Dogs had taken David Garcia Gallego on loan from Rapid Bosco Navas (2008 champions) and he'd been a great signing as he went on to keep his second clean sheet in as many games at the start of the group phase. At the other end, Dickie Dogs broke their tournament duck thanks to a strike from Geoff King. It was a cracking strike from distance for the Dogs #9 on his debut tour for the club, showing no sign of fatigue after flying in from Goa via Doha.

King's strike was ultimately the difference between the two teams and Dickie Dogs had their first W of the day. For AFC Shooters, it was an opening game L but a promising performance.

To complete Round 2 we had Cheesecake FC (Eng) versus FC Miracle (Hun). This felt like a match that must have occurred before in eurofootballfives.com history but surprisingly hadn't. They'd often competed at the same destinations but usually in different years so kept missing each other.

Cheesecake FC were making their debut in the Veterans section of our events. FC Miracle were making their fourth in this age category. Most recently, t hey appeared at the 2023 Mallorca Veterans and were in fine form. They began with a 6-0 win over Wafty Crankers before demolishing Southgate Ramblers, 9-0. A 2-0 victory over Polonia Limerick set-up a group decider against FC Poloboc. They drew 1-1 as FC Miracle won the group on goal difference. In the Cup Quarter-Finals they were back to winning ways with a 5-2 win over Trojans of Spain. They then ran into Duktil Balear who defeated them 4-2 in the Semi-Finals.

Today, FC Miracle had successfully negotiated a tricky opening game with a 1-0 win over FC Poloboc. They were equally strong here in Round 2 with Peter Kollar and Adam Sifter both on target. FC Miracle were equally strong at the back with goalkeeper Marton Rekli keeping his second clean sheet of the tournament.

It was a tough opening for Cheesecake FC, they'd not done a lot wrong but they only had 1 point from 6 so far to show for their efforts. Still, they had 4 group games left to get points on the board.