Morale-boosting win for Floriana

Floriana returned to winning ways as they defeated Tarxien Rainbows 4-0 at the Hibernians Stadium on Sunday.

The Greens now move eighth, one point ahead of the Rainbows who were suffering a second consecutive defeat. For Floriana, this was only the second win in seven matches while for Tarxien, this was also the third defeat in four matches.

Floriana lacked the suspended Jurgen Pisani and Mohammed Saleh and these were replaced by Clyde Borg and Maurizio Vella. Terence Vella was making his first appearance for the Greens after recovering from a long-term injury.

On the other hand, following the heavy defeat to Valletta, Jose Borg made three changes as Matthew Spiteri, Gabriel Aquilina and Alex Nilsson were preferred to Marco Botta, Daniel Zerafa and Jacson de Paixao.

Floriana took the lead on the 14th minute when off a cross by Arthur Henrique Oyama from the left, Tiago Galvao da Silva headed home past Andrea Cassar.

Two minutes later, the Greens doubled the score thanks to a powerful drive by Ignacio Varela which hit the crossbar with the ball ending at the back of the net.

Arthur Henrique Oyama made it 3-0 on the 90th as his attempt was not held by the Tarxien goalkeeper.

Two minutes in added time, Arthur Henrique Oyama added another as he lobbed the ball over Cassar.

FLORIANA Ini Etim Akpan, Enzo Ruiz, Steve Pisani, Clyde Borg, Ignacio Varela (77′ Brandon Bray), Maurizio Vella (38′ Clayton Failla), Goran Galesic (60′ Terence Vella), Tiago Galvao da Silva, Alex Cini, Arthur Henrique Oyama, Emerson Marcelina.
Justin Spiteri, Bradley Sciberras, Jake Stenson, Daniel Agius.
Coach: Guido Ugolotti
Assistant Coach: Massimo Giuseppe Savio

TARXIEN Andrea Cassar, Jens Wemmer, Matthew Spiteri (77′ Daniel Zerafa), Michele Paolucci, Gabriel Aquilina (67′ Darren Falzon), Andrew Agius, Andre Scicluna, Stefan Radovanovic (84′ Luke Grech), Anderson de Barros, Ricardo Silva Faria, Alexander Nilsson.
Subs not used: Giorgio Nardone, Daniel Zerafa, Matthew Brincat, Darren Falzon, Daniel Vassallo, Miguel Ciantar.
Asst. Coach: Saviour Debono Grech

Referee: Emanuel Grech
Assistant Referees: Duncan Sultana, Darko Stankovic
Fourth Official: Malcolm Spiteri
Yellow Cards: Failla, Cini, Agius, Scicluna
BOV Player of the Match: Arthur Henrique Oyama
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