Sliema Wanderers bounced back from last week’s heavy defeat to Balzan as they defeated Gzira United 2-0 at the National Stadium on Saturday.

The Wanderers, therefore, kept the pace with fourth-placed Birkirkara who lie four points ahead of them while Gzira failed to take advantage of Hibernians’ defeat to Hamrun to stay five points behind the Paolites and just two ahead of the Stripes.

Sliema took the lead seven minutes from the end of the first half thanks to Juri Cisotti who slotted the ball past goalkeeper Justin Haber following an assist by Dejan Vukovic from the right.

One minute in added time, before the end of the first half, the Wanderers doubled the score thanks to a great curved shot from the left by Alex Satariano which surprised the Gzira goalkeeper.

SLIEMA Jake Galea, Alex Satariano, Kurt Shaw, Alessandro Milesi, Juri Cisotti (89′ John Mintoff), Denilson Pereira, Danny Holla (79′ Michele Sansone), Gabriel Aquilina, Riki Kakinuma (90+3′ Jack Kind), Nuno Jorge Malheiro Barbosa (79′ Myles Beerman), Dejan Vukovic.
Coach: Andrea Pisanu

GZIRA Justin Haber, Gabriel Bohrer Mentz, Steve Borg (74′ Karl Pulo), Nikolai Muscat, Steve Pisani (68′ Filype Pinheiro Mendonca), Dexter Xuereb, Martin Davis (56′ Nevin Portelli), Ricardo Correa Duarte, Sacha Borg, Bahrudin Atajic (74′ Andrew Cohen), Jefferson de Assis.
Coach: Darren Abdilla

Referee: Philip Farrugia
Assistant Referees: Alan Camilleri, Chris Francalanza
Fourth Official: Daniel Portelli
Yellow Cards: Sacha Borg, Jefferson, Portelli, Satariano, Muscat, Mintoff
BOV Player of the Match: Alex Satariano