We began Group C with FC Miracle (Hun) versus Wafty Crankers (Eng). These are two teams who have a long history with eurfootballfives.com dating back to 2011 and 2008 respectively. It was great to welcome back old friends and familiar faces.

FC Miracle have appeared in our Veterans events twice before. 2017 saw them compete at our Lisbon Veterans Tournament. They won 4 and lost 1 game in Group A as they were 1 of 3 teams to finish level on 12 points. Their goal difference saw them win the group. A 4-0 win over FLX saw them reach another Cup Final. They missed out on the trophy as they lost 5-2 to Talhos Mariete. There was consolation for Laszlo Zsolt who was the top scorer on the day with 16 goals.

2018 saw another appearance in our Veterans event, this time in the Algarve. 5 wins and 1 defeat from 6 group games saw them finish second in Group B and qualify for the Cup. An almighty tussle in the Semi-Finals saw them draw 0-0 with 2017's Mallorca Veterans winners, FC Mahou. FC Miracle went through 3-2 on penalties. They were to finish runners-up again though as they lost the Cup Final 2-0 to Mini FC. Zoltan Toth was joint top scorer with 8 goals.

Here in Mallorca in 2023 it was Laszlo Zsolt who opened the scoring for the Hungarian side. Istvan Nemeth then scored four times (2 either side of half-time) to make it 5-0 before Janos Molnar put the icing on a 6-0 cake.

The last team to get underway was Southgate Ramblers as they took on FC Miracle. FC Miracle had already warmed up with a 6-0 win and the Hungarians were in full flow as they continued on their quest for a third Veterans Cup Final appearance.

Maybe Southgate Ramblers were caught a little cold having not yet played but, regardless of this, they would have had a tough time against an FC Miracle side who were rampant. They hit the Ramblers for six in a sensational first half. Laszlo Zsolt scored the opening goal as he did in the previous match and his team were up and running. Janos Gal made it 2-0 before Janos Molnar made it 3-0. Janos Gal scored again for 4-0. Istvan Nemeth added to his four against Wafty Crankers to make it 5-0 before Laszlo Alexey made it 6-0. Goals from everywhere.

The good news for Southgate Ramblers was the first half was now over. The bad news was they had to go and play a second half. Things calmed down a little but there were still further strikes from Janos Molnar, Zoltan Toth and Janos Molnar again for a hat-trick.

Unsurprisingly, the 9-0 result sent FC Miracle to the top of the table.

The fixtures continued with Wafty Crankers and Polonia Limerick – both teams were looking to bounce back from opening game defeats.

The Wafty Crankers (Eng) made their debut all the way back in the 2008 Prague Masters reaching the Plate Semi-Finals and followed this up with a Cup Quarter-Final performance in the 2009 Amsterdam Fives where they unfortunately lost on the Golden Goal rule having earlier topped their 5-team group with a 100% record.

In 2010 they reached the Barcelona Fives Plate Semi-Finals and finished 5 th in their group of the 2010 Manchester Fives missing out on the knock-out phase. At the 2011 Prague Masters a haul of 6 points in the group phase saw them qualify for the Plate competition. They then went on an impressive run winning their Quarter-Final 3-2 v Team Also Ran (Ire), their Semi-Final 1-0 v Fridays (Cze) and a 2-1 win via Golden Goal against Saipan FC (Ire).

Their last appearance was at the 2016 Prague Tournament and they began well with a 2-2 draw against Fiorentina Turner. There was no shame in losing 3-0 to 5-times eurofootballfives.com winners CIS Committee of Belarus nor 3-1 to 3-times Cup Finalists The A Team of France. A 4-2 defeat followed to 50 Shades of O'Shea before collecting a 3-0 win over Professional Czech Team to finish the group on 6 points and fourth place. They qualified for the Plate Semi-Finals and it proved to be an epic encounter against Frank Hirth. Their opponents took the lead but they levelled at 1-1 before going 3-1 and 5-2 down. They recovered to 5-4 but were ultimately edged out in a 9 goal thriller.

7 years on and into the Veterans tournament for the first time. After a chastening first game they fell behind here to Polonia Limerick with Kuba Domanski on target for the second successive game. There was to be joy for Wafty Crankers though before the break as Mike Phillips levelled for 1-1.

The second half began like the first with Kuba Domanski on target for Polonia Limerick. This time there was no way back as Adam Gracz extended the lead to 3-1 which proved to be the margin of victory.

Game 5 of Group C was to be FC Poloboc (Mda) versus Southgate Ramblers (Eng). The teams experienced mixed fortunes in their first games with FC Poloboc securing a good 2-1 win over Polonia Limerick. Southgate Ramblers were on the wrong end of a 9-0 defeat to FC Miracle.

In competing at the 2023 Mallorca Veterans Tournament, FC Poloboc became the first team to represent Moldova at our events. It meant that Moldova was the 41 st nation to be represented at our events. They follow on from Finland (37th), USA (38th), Tunisia (39th) and Saudi Arabia (40th) and we wish FC Poloboc and Moldova a warm welcome to our events.

They were taking to the competition like the proverbial duck to water as they followed up their win versus Poland with a win versus England. Leonid Cigureanu scored for the second game in a row and there was a first of the day for Andriau Cucovei as FC Poloboc lead 2-0 at half-time. After the break Veaceslav Borja made it 3-0 to round off another great win with special mention to Iuliau Stratulat and his defence for a first clean sheet of the tournament.

Veterans

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