Mosta won this year’s edition of the Gammari Muscat Mosta Tournament after beating Tarxien Rainbows 4-1 to end their commitments with maximum points from three matches and a tournament triumph after three years.
Although the first half was a balanced affair, The Blues completely dominated proceedings in the second half and Tarxien did not know what hit them. It was a brilliant collective performance by Mosta, but their hero on the night was Kurt Magro who scored the first two goals against his former club.
Tarxien started brightly and after a few minutes they hit the crossbar. Mosta began so settle and operate on fast counter attacks. It was from such a situation that saw The Blues open the scoring after 27 minutes when a cross by Jonathan Bajada found Kurt Magro who unleashed a low shot that beat Tarxien keeper Vella for the 1-0 half-time lead.
The expected Rainbows reaction never came. Instead Mosta continued to dominate and after Arsenic missed a sitter, Kurt Magro scored his and Mosta’s second on the hour when he rose to head in a perfect free-kick by Diego Pedriaggi.
Nikola Arsenic scored Mosta’s third goal in the 75th minute when the Tarxien keeper fumbled the ball from a free kick by Pedriaggi and the tall Serb was on hand to finish into an empty net. Tarxien reduced the arrears two minutes later through Adrian Carabott.
But Mosta were determined to finish the night with style and with three minutes left on the clock they scored the best goal on the night. Pedriaggi put in a perfect cross from the left, Alex Cini rose high to head it downwards in the path of the incoming Jonathan Bajada who promptly shot past the Tarxien keeper into the bottom left hand corner.
The full time whistle saw Mosta celebrate after a win they fully deserved and worthy winners of this year’s tournament. Birkirkara striker Moises Avila was awarded the tournament’s Best Player and Mosta FC President George Galea presented the winning trophy to club captain Bryan Agius.
Birkirkara finished the tournament as runners-up after beating Vittoriosa Stars 5-1. Their hero was yet again Moises Avila who scored his second hat-trick of the tournament. An own goal by Johan Spiteri and another by substitute Terence Vella completed the scoring for the Stripes. Tassio Lopez had put Vittoriosa in the lead on 38 minutes, but in the end they suffered their third defeat in as many matches and ended the tournament with no points.
