Fans who braved the cold weather in the hope of a repeat of the breathless goalfest of last September which saw the two side sharing six goals, were to be sadly disappointed yesterday.
Instead they saw a drab draw devoid of goals with little excitement of any description.
A sharing of spoils is tantamount to a shortfall of two points in today’s football. Both Birkirkara and Balzan contrived ‘to drop’ what would have been tangible dividends when they could not go beyond a goalless draw.
With both teams stranded in the middle part of the standings, yesterday’s outcome at the National Stadium hardly changed their predicament.
And even the introduction of former Sevilla winger Diego Capel could not lift up the Stripes’ spirits.
Things looked promising for Birkirkara yesterday as Andrè Paus’s resources were enhanced by the availability of new recruits Capel and Claudio Bonanni.
Bonanni was thrown straight into the thick of things but Capel’s path to the first team was blocked by Paul Mbong, preferred to fill the boots of Caio Henrique Pardo.
Jacques Scerri had some important absentees, namely the suspended duo Paul Fenech and Steve Pisani as well as the Premier league top-scorer Andrija Majdevac who left the club to join AEL Limassol in Cyprus.
Stefan Dimic’s cross from the right wing was met by Luke Montebello but his header was stopped by Andrew Hogg.
On the other side, Federico Falcone tested Kristijan Naumovski’s alertness from the long range which the Balzan goalkeeper pushed away.
Birkirkara’s attacking threat was more conspicuous thanks to the physical presence of Falcone. The Argentine striker had a header which finished over close the first quarter of the hour mark.
But play remained balanced as Ricardo Correa blasted his freekick on the side-netting.
After an entertaining start, the game entered a lull. After the change of ends, Birkirkara should have taken the lead but substitute Yannick Yankam, brought in for Johann Bezzina, drove straight at Naumovski.
The moment every Birkirkara supporter had been waiting for arrived on 67 minutes when Capel replaced Mbong.
On 75 minutes, Oscar Carniello got on the end of a Capel free-kick but headed feebly into the hands of Naumovski.
Ivan Bozovic’s forceful running in the middle finally created an opening for Balzan but the Serbian’s long-range drive was turned around by Hogg.
The tit-for-tat nature of the encounter persisted as Falcone set off on a diagional run before hitting a shot just wide of the mark.
Capel earned the plaudits for his deadball expertise, sending in a dangerous cross from a corner which was headed out by Yankam.
Five minutes from time, Hogg brought off a good save to tip over Arthur Faria’s shot.