FLORIANA                      2

Garcia 23, Matheus 90

NAXXAR LIONS           0

A screamer from Nicolas Garcia and a moment of class from Matheus helped Floriana to overcome Naxxar Lions 2-0 yesterday but their path to the IZIBET FA Trophy Last 16 was far from smooth.

The importance of this competition was shown by Mauro Camoranesi naming his strongest possible line-up.

His counterpart, George Vella made four changes from the 2-1 victory over Valletta in his starting line up with Rendon Blandon, Marcilio and Mark Fenech drafted into the formation.

One of these, Blandon threatened to surprise the strong Floriana line-up inside the first eight minutes, but he dragged his effort wide off the far post of Georgi Kitanov.

It was a good 15 minutes before Floriana regained their shape, and finally Dunstan Vella made inroads with a typical driving run on the left inside channel.

Kemar Reid was blocked by the Naxxar rearguard, the rebound fell into the path of Garcia who came inside onto his right foot and unleashed a pile-driver that fizzed past Matthias Debono and went in off the inside of the post.

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