Barnet Panthers travelled to Leuven in Holland to compete in the Holland Open Football tournament over the long Easter Weekend 

The group of 70 players and friend and family took to the Eurostar over the Easter weekend to make their way to Centre Parcs in North East Holland to join over 400 teams competing in Holland’s premium football tournament

Panthers fielded two teams – an U13s side and an U15s team.

The U13s faced Ammitsmøl-Egtved (🇩🇰), VV Ter Leede (🇳🇱) and MK Dons (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) in the group stages on the Saturday. Whereas, the U15s faced SIF Fodbold (🇩🇰), Ter Leede (🇳🇱) and Brøndbyernes IF (🇩🇰) in their group matches 

The U13s opened their account with a 2-0 defeat against Danish side Ammitsmøl-Egtved. They picked up three points against Dtch side VV Ter Leede before losing 2-0 to a very good MK Dons side. 

The results saw them playing off for a place in the final on the Sunday

Meanwhile the U15s started off strong with a good 2-0 win against Danish side SIF Fodbold before going down 3-1 to Dutch side VV Ter Leede 1st team and drawing 0-0 with Danish side Brøndbyernes IF to see them finish in 2nd place in the group but just missing out on a place in the group playing off for a place in the finals – having to settle for a 9th to 12th place finish. 

Time off between matches was spent between the pool at Centre Parcs and visiting Eindhoven to watch PSV Eindhoven beat Excelsior 4-0. 

The Sunday proved too much for both the stretched squads with injuries and no subs.

The U13s losing narrowly 1-0 to Ammitsbøl-Egtved before losing 4-0 to MK Dons and drawing 0-0 with fellow Brits MFA WK

Meanwhile the U15s drew 0-0 with VV Ter Leede No 2 before going down 1-0 to Danish side Fyrkat Q and drawing 0-0 with Skæelskør Boldklub and Idrætsforening to finish overall 11th out of 24 teams in the tournament .

Bank holiday Monday with the girls and their families split between Toverland fun fair and Nijmegen. And on the way back, the girls spent an afternoon strolling around Brussels Grand Place before heading back to the Eurostar

All in all a fabulous weekend. Some competitive football played against some very good international teams and new friends were made with Brøndby planning to travel to the UK in the near future to play Panthers.