The top teams in the FXDD Premier Division succeeded in winning their respective matches to continue marching forward for the title.
Leaders Hibernians registered a stunning 8-2 win over San Gwann thanks to a brace by Celino Alves and Mark Zammit together with Kurt Bartolo, Xavier Saliba, David Bobokidhze and an own goal. San Gwann’s reply came from Nizar Fawzi Salem Abouisha and Denis Di Maio.
Second-placed Luxol defeated Hamrun Spartans 7-4 to keep pressure on the Paolites. After ending the first half 4-3 up, Luxol tried to exert pressure on the Hamrun rearguard who operated well from good counter attacks. William Barbosa and Ibrahim Tarik hit a brace while George Frendo, Carl Saliba and Florin Anton added more goals for Luxol who obtained their fourteenth success of the season. Hamrun scored through a brace by Spanish Cristian Cuadros Silva, Mohammed Elamari and Christian Cacciatolo.
Photo: Copyright © Joe Borg
Balzan had the better of Qormi 6-0 to keep the third place in the table. For Balzan, Emil Andrei Raducu, Jovica Milijic, Boycho Marev, Gabriel Dobre, Clint Cope and Glenn Bonello managed to find the net.
Zabbar St. Patrick edged past Pembroke Athleta 4-3 to get their first win in the Championship Round. Both teams came from a defeat in the knock-out semifinals and were ready to make up for their disappointment. In fact the match proved to be a balanced one with both teams creating lots of goal scoring opportunities. Nikolay Filipov (2 goals), Rosen Filipov and Omar Toutoungi put their name on the score sheet for Zabbar. Pembroke replied with goals from Florin Manea, Carl Azzopardi and Brian Deguara.
Hat-trick strikers Rudy Alinho and Jairo Cueto paved the way for Melita to get the three points after seeing off relegation strugglers Zurrieq 8-4. It was a collective win for Edwin Gauci’s boys who scored four goals in the first minutes to gain a wide advantage on their opponents. Zurrieq never gave up and a fantastic Tyron Borg put them back into the match with three quick goals to end the first half 5-3 for Melita. Melita dominated the second half and scored other four goals to increase the advantage over their opponents who showed signs of fatigue having only five players in their squad for this match. Rudy Alinho and Jairo Cueto netted three times with Michael Martin scoring a brace for the St Julian’s side. Tyron Borg replied for Zurrieq hitting the target four times.
In other matches, Swieqi United joined Luqa St. Andrew’s on the seven point mark after beating Mosta 3-2 while Birzebbugia St. Peter’s defeated Luqa 5-1.
In the FXDD First Division, Msida found little difficulty to impose themselves on Marsascala 3-0 thanks to a brace by Chris Cutajar and a goal by Darren Attard.