Floriana move closer to safety

rabat-floriana140323pzcTwo goals within the first eight minutes paved the way for a most comfortable win for Floriana over ten-man Rabat Ajax.

The Greens now join Tarxien on the 21-point mark, four ahead of Qormi and Naxxar Lions and seven ahead of Vittoriosa. Rabat, on the other hand, remain anchored at the bottom of the table and have now gone nineteen matches without a win.

The Magpies lacked no less than six players, namely Pavle Velimirovic, Dylan Falzon, Sorin Oproiescu, and Jonathan Bajada apart from the usual Dani Pelaez and Adam Smeir. on the other hand, Floriana could not count on the suspended Sacha Borg.

The Greens took the lead after just three minutes thanks to a great rising shot from the edge of the area by Steve Pisani which gave Jonathan Azzopardi no chance.

Five minutes later, Floriana doubled the score through Igor Coronado who advanced into the area before beating Azzopardi with a shot from the left.

On the 15th, Daniel Hanford performed a good save into a corner on a Diego Carrillo freekick. Two minutes later, a rising shot by Coronado ended just over the bar and then Azzopardi performed a good save on an Ibok Edet header.

One minute in the second half, Rabat were reduced to ten men as Ryan Micallef was sent off by referee Keith Kennedy.

Floriana scored a third goal on the 80th when Andre Scicluna was brought down inside the area by Joseph Caruana just seconds after hitting the crossbar with a fine header. From the penalty spot, Gary Muir converted.

Four minutes later, Muir could have added another but was unlucky to hit the upright.

Diogo Pinheiro de Souza made it 4-0 on the 90th as he beat Azzopardi with a low shot from inside the area when served by Coronado.

One minute in added time, Diogo Pinheiro de Souza added another as he concluded a fine move on the left with an angled shot which beat Azzopardi.

Photo: Copyright © Paul Zammit Cutajar

RABAT Jonathan Azzopardi, Shaun Gauci, David Azzopardi, Ivan Carapic, Joseph Caruana, Zachary Tanti, Aidan Azzopardi (80′ Chris Vella), Wayne Borg (90′ Stefan Cortis), Diego Carrillo Pendas, Ryan Micallef, Malcolm Licari.
Subs not used: Andrew Zammit, Patrick Borg, Sacha Cortis, Luke Cauchi, Sean Abela.
Coach: Steve D’Amato

FLORIANA Daniel Hanford, Andre Scicluna, Emmanuel Ibok Edet, Steve Pisani (83′ Luca Casha), Christian Caruana, Igor Coronado, Diogo Pinheiro de Sousa, Jonathan Xerri, Clyde Borg, Joseph Borg (90′ Darrell Baldacchino), Gary Muir (85′ Brooke Farrugia).
Subs not used: Sean Mintoff, Manuel Briffa, Rodrigo Felix Aguiar, Isaac Galea.
Coach: Ian Dawes

Referee: Keith Kennedy (NIR)
Assistant Referees: Gavin Hegharty, Jonathan Thompson
Fourth official: Tim Marshall
Yellow Cards: J. Caruana
Red Cards: 47′ Ryan Micallef
BOV Player of the Match: Igor Coronado