Europa League 2019

For the first time GTSA took part in the FISTF Europa League. The competition took place in Belem, a suburb of Lisbon over the weekend 26/27 October. The club was represented by Dave Gladman, Malcolm Lees and Brian Spoors and they were joined with 24 hours to spare by American, Patrick Sheridan. Sheridan, who plays his subbuteo in Denver Colorado, had been due to play with Piraeus in the tournament but the club had to withdraw only 3 days before the competition. GTSA were able to secure a loan transfer from Piraeus, the first in FISTF history.

With two late withdrawals including Piraeus, twenty two clubs went into the draw for four groups. Glasgow were drawn in Group 1 along with four other teams. AS Hennuyer (Belgium), CFT Puylaurens (France), TSC Stella Artois Milano (Italy) and GRD 1st May Tires (Portugal).

The tournament was well organised and ran smoothly. The pitches, newly laid, proved to be slow and sticky. This made control of the ball and maintaining possession very difficult.

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Glasgow TSA04CFT Puylaurens
M. Lees01J.F. Bolard
B. Spoors16Leroy S.
D. Gladman01Roger T.
P. Sheridan06Leroy D.
Glasgow TSA03GRD 1º Maio Tires
M. Lees02Paulo Laranjeira
B. Spoors010Paulo Elias
D. Gladman04Luis Abreu
P. Sheridan11José Santos
Glasgow TSA13TSC Stella Artois Milano
Patrick Sheridan01B. Mazzeo
Dave Gladman02M. Suffritti
Malcom Lees16A. Iorio
Brian Spoors50
AS Hennuyer40Glasgow TSA
Despretz S.51Brian Spoors
Aggelinas C.81Malcolm Lees
Marain G.50Dave Gladman
Dieudonne D.10Patrick Sheridan

Therefore at the end of Saturday’s play Glasgow had finished 5th in the group. This meant that on the Sunday they would play for places 17 to 22. Because two teams had withdrawn Glasgow would play only 2 games on the Sunday, not 3.

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In their first match Glasgow were drawn against Europa FC TFC (Gibraltar) and lost 3-0. The final match was against Wolverhampton to decide 21st and 22nd places. Wolves had lost their first match controversially in extra time against Attard SC (Malta). Wolves really should have won that match but instead they found themselves facing Glasgow in the final game. Remarkably the match finished 2-2 with the same number of goals for and against. Malcolm Lees and Patrick Sheridan had gained wins for Glasgow, Justin Scott and Mick Hammonds for Wolves. After a long 7 minutes it was Patrick Sheridan who broke the deadlock by scoring the winner against Richard Badger and so saved Glasgow from finishing last.

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The Europa League Champions were FCD Mortellito Barcellona (Italy) who defeated Sporting CP (Portugal) 2-1 in the final match.