Birkirkara coach Andre Paus lauded his team’s belief and resilience as the Stripes produced one of the biggest comebacks in the 2021-22 Premier League when they scored two injury-time goals to stun Balzan 3-2 at the Centenary Stadium on Wednesday.
It looked as though Birkirkara were set for a miserable start to the new year when a penalty conversion from Aleksa Andreijic and a Uros Ljubomirac strike just before half-time handed Balzan a commanding two-goal lead.
But football is capable of producing things you would never expect and that is what happened. When Luke Montebello pulled a goal back with three minutes to go nobody thought that the Stripes could salvage the match.
But Birkirkara kept believing and coach Andre Paus’s decision to include young forward Jed Valletta in stoppage time proved a masterstroke as the young striker went on to clinch the equaliser with a spectacular strike two minutes into stoppage time before Diego Venancio sealed an extraordinary comeback with a fine winner.