Luxol will be all out to stop champions Balzan from winning the first honour of the season as the two teams cross swords in the Super Cup at the Corradino Pavillion on Friday, kick-off at 20:30.

The competition is reserved for the Champions and the Knock Out winners but since Balzan won the double and Hibernians withdrew their participation from Futsal competitions, Luxol earned the right to take part in the Super Cup after finishing third in last season’s Premier Division.

It is still early to make any real assessment, but judging from the matches we have witnessed so far, both teams seem to have strong squads to challenge for the main competitions this season.

The two teams have been preparing since summer especially Balzan in view of their commitments in the UEFA Futsal Cup.
After losing 7-2 to hosts MNK Alumnus Zagreb in the first game from Group F of the UEFA Futsal Cup Preliminary Round, Balzan bounced back with a 5-3 win over Danish champions København in the second game at the Sports Hall Dom Sportova in Zagreb to place second in the mini-tournament.

Balzan will try to retain the cup that they have won last year after seeing off Hibernians 5-1. They have lost a host of players, among them player/coach Gabriel Dobre, Emil Raducu, Andrea Dan, Zeljko Anicic, Jovica Milijic, Reuben Grech and Christian Wismayer. However they have appointed Bulgarian Boycho Marev as their new player-coach while securing the services of Italian player Marco Conti and Croatian international Frane Despotovic. They have also signed promising youngster Matthew Attard, Mark Zammit, Eslam Khalifa and Karl Azzopardi.

On their part, Luxol retained the core of the squad that did well last season with player-coach Florin Anton relying on the likes of William Barbosa and new recruits Celino Alves, Peter Pullicino, Omar Toutoungi, Reuben Grech and Ben Camilleri. They have released Paul Bugeja, Eslam Khalifa, Basil Emeka, Noel Bray and Ibrahim Tarik.