Two goals in the second half by Willis Furtado handed Floriana a 2-0 win over Marsaxlokk in the quarter-finals of the IZIBET FA Trophy at the Tony Bezzina Stadium on Saturday.
While Marsaxlokk were coming from a 5-0 win over Zejtun Corinthians and a 3-0 win over Swieqi United in the previous rounds, Floriana had defeated Naxxar Lions 2-0 and Zebbug Rangers 7-1.
The Greens were the better side during the first half but had to wait until four minutes in the second half to break the deadlock with Willis Furtado concluding a swift counter break with a powerful shot from inside the area whcih beat goalkeeper Marko Drobnjak.
Floriana sealed the issue two minutes from time when they were awarded a penalty after Willis Furtado was brought down inside the area; the naturalised French forward had his attempt from the penalty spot partially saved by Drobnjak but was quick to place the ball at the back of the net off the rebound.
Marsaxlokk: 95-Marko Drobnjak, 3-Weder Da Silva Soares(17-Jacob Walker 78), 4-Karl Micallef (11-Duane Bonnici78), 6-Nikolai Muscat (23-Samuel Boakye 85), 8-Jake Ghio (99-Anthony Obonogwu 63), 10-Yuri De Jesus Messias, 27-Leandro Aguirre, 28-Nikola Raden, 30-Ryan Scicluna, 88-Sunday Akinbule, 94-Fernando Jose Junior Gomes
Floriana: 33-Georgi Kitanov, 4-Oualid El Hasni, 8-Jake Grech (24-Lorenzo De Grazia 90), 10-Jose Ulises Arias (12-Dunstan Vella 77), 11-Matheus De Sousa (9-Kemar Reid 77), 17-Owen Spiteri, 20-Matias Nicolas Garcia, 42-Maksim Valadzko (21-Carlo Zammit Lonardelli 82), 55-Alexandros Kouro, 77-Aleandro Garzia, 94-Willis Furtado(22-Kyrian Nwoko 90)
Referee: Philip Farrugia
Assistant Referees: Duncan Sultana, Mark Ciantar
Fourth Official: Daniel Portelli