Floriana 2
Borg 31; Caruana 44;
Qormi 1
Bello-Osagie 14;

A goal to the good and a man up after just 23 minutes, Qormi had good reasons to be optimistic about their chances of overcoming Floriana but it proved a false dawn for Stephen Azzopardi’s troops.

The Greens had been all over the place in the opening exchanges but showed resilience in adversity as they turned the tables on Qormi who, absurdly, lost their early focus after Eric Akoto had been sent off.

The game was decided in the final 15 minutes of the opening half as Floriana, also strengthened by coach Michael Woods’s tactical adjustments, swamped their fading opponents to cancel out Abubakar Bello-Osagie’s opener for Qormi.

While Qormi’s slump ruined their hopes of edging closer to a top-six finish, Floriana’s spirited comeback not only extended their unbeaten run to eight matches, it also cemented their position in the top three of the table.

The returning Christian Caruana filled the void left by Onome Sodje, out with a wrist injury.

The other two changes in the Floriana team from the Marsaxlokk win saw Pablo Doffo, back from suspension, replacing Christian Cassar, who started on the bench, and Clyde Borg getting the nod ahead of Thomas Paris.

Azzopardi gave loan signing Triston Caruana his debut. He de-putised for Joseph Farrugia, suspended, as Stephen Wellman came for Jonathan Bondin at left-back.

A minute’s silence in memory of former Floriana player Alfred Vella James, who passed away last week, was observed before kick-off.

The first chance fell to Floriana. Mano Micallef delivered a low cross that was met by Caruana whose header was saved by goalkeeper Matthew Farrugia.

At the other end, Owen Bugeja saved Floriana from a potentially damaging situation as he effected a perfectly-timed tackle to nudge the ball away from the goalbound Jorginho.

Jorginho again exposed the brittleness of Floriana’s defence with a run from the left but the Brazilian took a touch too many and the Greens cleared. Floriana’s lethargic defending in these early stages inflamed coach Woods but his players failed to heed to alarm signals.

The scoreboard marked just over 14 minutes when Wellman whipped in a cross from the left and Bello-Osagie had time and space to control the ball before powering his shot into the roof of the net.

The direct running of Bello-Osagie and Jorginho was a source of constant menace for Floriana.

This was evident when Jorginho, latching on to a long ball, ran towards Eric Akoto and Bugeja but the latter got first to the ball. His clearance fell to Bello-Osagie whose drive was blocked by Manuel Bartolo.

Floriana were struggling to get the ball to their forward line but in an isolated foray inside Qormi’s half, Ivan Woods went close but his grounder whistled past the post.

If this chance helped lift the Floriana fans’ spirits, they suffered a blow moments later when Akoto was shown a straight red for a reckless tackle on Matthew Bartolo.

Woods promptly tweaked his formation as Doffo dropped to centre-half and Paris, a midfielder, came on for John Mintoff in a 4-3-1-1 set-up.

Ironically, Akoto’s sending-off and the tactical change seemed to embolden Floriana who equalised just past the half-hour thanks to Borg who rifled a shot into the left-hand corner after reacting first to a loose ball just inside the box.

Floriana continued to hold their ground and keeper Farrugia was solely responsible for preventing them from taking the lead as he made successive saves from efforts by Doffo and Paris.

With Qormi teetering at the back, Floriana continued to push forward and their efforts were rewarded on the stroke of half-time.

Doffo’s corner soared into the box where Woods’s header came off a defender’s back but, from the ensuing melee, Caruana fired home from close in.

Qormi’s decline must have incensed Azzopardi but he kept faith with the same 11 at the start of the second period.

There was not much in the way of creative fare in the early stages of the second half but after 11 minutes, Qormi threatened an equaliser, Caruana’s grounder rolling the wrong side of the far post.

Running through on the right, Bartolo did well to race to the byline before hitting a cross that eluded Bartolo but Bello-Osagie’s attempt came off Duncan Pisani.

It was all Qormi now. Stuart Duff’s corner whizzed dangerously into the six-yard box but no Qormi player was at hand to poke home.

Jorginho’s surging run un-nerved Floriana as Bugeja slid in to bring down the Brazilian on the left edge of the box.

Duff’s free-kick was blocked by Caruana.

Seconds earlier, Malcolm Licari came on for the unusually subdued Andre Grabowski.

Despite enjoying a welter of possession, Qormi toiled to make it count. Azzopardi’s team thought they had equalised when, with six minutes remaining, Bello-Osagie headed home from Duff’s centre but the referee had whistled to signal a foul inside the box.

In stoppage time, Jorginho was dismissed after clashing with goalkeeper Bartolo as the two went up for a high ball.

Floriana
M. Bartolo-6.5, E. Akoto, M. Micallef-6.5, O. Bugeja-7.5, D. Pisani-5.5, C. Borg-7, P. Doffo-7, A. Grabowski-6 (69 M. Licari-6), J. Mintoff (25 T. Paris-6), C. Caruana-6.5 (82 R. Darmanin), I. Woods-6.

Qormi
M. Farrugia-6.5, Jef. Chetcuti-6 (72 Jos. Chetcuti), R. Sammut-5.5 (77 L. Sciberras), M. Bartolo-7.5, K. Scicluna-6.5, F. Mirarchi-6 (82 C. Sammut), Jorginho, S. Duff-5, T. Caruana-5.5, S. Wellman-5.5, A. Bello-Osagie-6.

Referee: Chris Lautier.

Yellow cards: T. Caruana; Bugeja; Licari; Scicluna.

Red cards: Akoto (F) 23; Jorginho (Q) 90.

BOV player of the match: Matthew Bartolo (Qormi).