Santa Lucia and Senglea Athletic earned a point each as they shared the spoils in a goalless draw at the Centenary Stadium on Saturday.
Santa Lucia, who were coming from a 1-3 defeat to Sirens last week therefore move back on track with a positive result even if they had to play in ten men for the final five minutes.
Senglea, on the other hand, were coming from back-to-back defeats to Hamrun Spartans and Hibernians and were therefore eager to obtain something from this game.
Santa Lucia went close with a Gabriel Bohrer Mentz freekick which was turned into a corner by Curmi early in the game and towards the end of the first half with a Maycon Santana freekick ending high.
During the second half, Senglea replied with a Sean Cipriott long-distance effort and then a Taisei Marukawa attempt was cleared into a corner by Zuniga. A Diego Mosquera Segura effort for Santa Lucia was deflected into a corner.
Five minutes from time, Santa Lucia were reduced to ten men after Gabriel Bohrer Mentz received a second yellow card for stopping a promising attack.
SANTA LUCIA Ryan Caruana, Gabriel Bohrer Mentz, Jackson David Usuga Mendoza, Diego Luis Mosquera Segura, Maycon Santana (75’ Neil Micallef), Kevin Ante Rosero, Jacob Walker, Daniel Agius, Farid Zuniga, Jamie Zerafa (84’ Nick Borg), Rei Tachikawa (87’ Lee Galea).
Subs not used: Dorian Bugeja, Adam Magri Overend, Jamie Magri Overend, Omar Elouni.
Coach: Oliver Spiteri
Asst. Coach: Brian Chetcuti
SENGLEA Anthony Curmi, Sigitas Olberkis, Dejan Debono, Elvis Sakyi, Manolito Micallef, Gonzalo Nicolas Virano (63′ David Xuereb), Taisei Marukawa, Jose Wilkson Teixeira, Jan Tanti (77’ Andrei Spiteri), Sean Cipriott (72’ Wilfried Zamble), Marcelo Dias.
Subs not used: Daniel Farrugia, Connor Zammit, Karl Pulo, Justin Micallef.
Coach: Steven Vella
Goalkeepers Coach: Mario Muscat
Referee: Matthew Degabriele
Assistant Referees: Jurgen Spiteri, Mark Ciantar
Fourth Official: Malcolm Spiteri
Yellow Cards: Cipriott, Bohrer Mentz, Sakyi, Virano, Zuniga, Mosquera Segura, Micallef
Red Cards: 85’ Gabriel Bohrer Mentz
BOV Player of the Match: Taisei Marukawa