BALZAN          1

Effiong 77

GŻIRA UNITED 3

Soares 57, Davis 74, Samb 90

Paul Zammit enjoyed his first win as Gżira United coach as the Maroons strolled past Balzan to revive their hopes of a late Premier League title push yesterday.

In fact, Gżira remain fifth in the standings on 32 points but have now bridged the gap on Premier League joint-leaders Valletta and Floriana to only three points after the two pace-setters slumped to defeats this weekend to Birkirkara and Gudja respectively.

Gżira only had to summon their minimum effort to outsmart an over-cautious Balzan team which rarely had a sniff at the opposing goal.

Balzan coach Jacques Scerri was without four key players for yesterday’s match as Kristijan Naumovski and Uros Ljubomirac were serving suspension while Michael Johnson and Arthur Faria were sidelined by injury.

On the other hand, Zammit made one change to the team that drew against Floriana last week as Juan Corbalan started ahead of Sasha Borg.

Inside the first five minutes, the Maroons were dangerous when Martin Davis dragged in an inviting cross from the right but the unmarked Marco Criaco at the far post, just failed to make contact with the ball.

Shy the quarter of the hour mark, Paul Fenech miscontrolled a pass then slipped inside his own half, allowing Nikolai Muscat to run unopposed before squaring a pass for Hamed Kone but Sean Mintoff, did well to deny the Ivory Coast forward.

Balzan could not getting going. Their only effort towards goal came from Adeseyi Adekoya whose shot missed the target.

After the break, Gżira stepped up their game.

Kone moved to a central striking position but his effort was pushed to a corner by Mintoff.

From the ensuing flag-kick, Kone played a short pass to Criaco who sent the ball towards Rodolfo Soares at the far post and the Brazilian defender planted a header past Mintoff.

It was evident that Scerri’s team were up against it. They simply had no answer to Gżira’s constant pounding.

It was no surprise when Gżira doubled their lead on 74 minutes. Corbalan’s cross was deflected into the path of Davis and the Jamaican forward had an easy task to head home.

A lapse in concentration in the Gżira defence handed a way back to Balzan who pulled a goal back a three minutes later.

In a quick raid, substitute Luke Montebello sent a low cross into the path of Effiong who stabbed home.

But any hopes of a Balzan comeback were ended on the stroke of time.

Davis broke free but was somewhat intercepted by Mintoff. The ball fell to Amadou Samb who kept his cool to slot the ball into an empty net.

 

Standings provided by Sofascore LiveScore

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