A penalty converted by Maxuell Maia da Silva enabled Gzira United to rescue a point in a 1-1 draw with Santa Lucia at the National Stadium on Sunday.
While for the Maroons, this was their first point after the defeat to Hibernians, for Santa Lucia, this was their second draw after the draw with Floriana.
Santa Lucia had one change from last week as Gianmarco Conti replaced Vito Plut while for Gzira, Nikolai Muscat and Nevin Portelli were preferred to Zachary Scerri and Dexter Xuereb.
Oliver Spiteri’s side took the lead on the 11th minute thanks to Gianmarco Conti who received a cross from the left and hit hard with the ball hitting the bar before ending at the back of the net.
However six minutes from time, Gzira were awarded a penalty after Jan Tanti floored Jefferson de Assis inside the area – a foul which cost Tanti a second yellow card and therefore a red card – and from the penalty spot, Maxuell Maia da Silva made no mistake.
SANTA LUCIA Julani Archibald, Andre Prates Rodrigues, Jurgen Pisani, Nicholas Pulis, Gianmarco Conti, Patrick Silva Mota, Alan da Silva Souza, Francisco Farias (85′ Vito Plut), Jan Tanti, Victor Luiz Filho, Kieran Xuereb (61′ Jamie Zerafa).
Coach: Oliver SpiteriGŻIRA Justin Haber, Gabriel Bohrer Mentz, Steve Borg, Nikolai Muscat (46′ Zachary Scerri), Steve Pisani (46′ Jefferson de Assis), Martin Davis, Nevin Portelli (77′ Emmanuel Mbong), Ricardo Correa Duarte (65′ Clive Gauci), Maxuell Maia, Thiago Espindola de Paula, Jackson Mendoza.
Coach: Darren AbdillaReferee: Stefan Pace
Assistant Referees: Duncan Sultana, Alan Camilleri
Fourth Official: Trustin Farrugia Cann
Yellow Cards: J. Tanti, Z. Scerri, T. Espindola, P. Silva, J. Pisani
Red Cards: 83′ Jan Tanti
BOV Player of the Match: Maxuell Maia da Silva