Five-star Greens stun Citizens in thrilling derby

Valletta 2
Floriana 3

Floriana caused a major upset last night when they upstaged neighbouring rivals Valletta in a hard-fought derby.

In the run-in to this clash few had given Floriana a chance to upstage the Citizens who during the past weeks had dominated the headlines with a series of new signings to bolster their squad. However, matches are won on the field and Floriana yesterday produced an exquisite display of determined football, based on sound defending and quick counter-attacking that left their highly-rated opponents jaded.

Serbian defender Darko Krsteski orchestrated his team's victory as the new signing set up the Greens' opening two goals and used all his experience to marshal his defensive team-mates to contain City's fight-back.

Indeed, this was a big setback for Valletta even though the championship is still in its infancy.

Coach Paul Zammit may lament he had a couple of key players missing but surely his team lacked cohesion yesterday as for long stretches Valletta looked a disjointed lot and struggled to create danger.

The loss of Stefan Giglio was hard to fill and so was that of Massimo Grima at the back. Keith Fenech replaced Giglio in midfield with German Heiner Backhaus starting in central defence.

Floriana coach Danilo Doncic left Nigerian forward Yala Bolasie on the bench as he started the match with the tried and trusted forward line of Adrian Mifsud and Christian Caruana.

The two teams were given a rousing welcome by their supporters from a packed Millennium Stand, creating a delightful spectacle that boosted the image of Maltese football by no small measure.

Sebastian Monesterolo was far from his usual form. He had a glorious chance to give City a head start on 14 minutes when he was put clean through by Zammit's defence-splitting pass but the Argentine hit over.

On 19 minutes Mifsud released Trevor Cilia who raced into the City penalty area but shot just wide.

As the minutes ticked by the game lost some of its early momentum as both teams looked to take a breather after a storming start.

Krsteski's deliveries from set-pieces were causing problems to the Valletta defence and on the half-hour the Serb drifted another dangerous cross inside the box that reached the unmarked Caruana who fired the ball past the helpless Hogg.

The goal hit the Citizens hard as they tried to push forward and redress the situation. Five minutes from half-time, Monesterolo evaded Floriana's offside trap but again failed to punish the Greens, hitting wide with only Agius to beat.

On the stroke of half-time, Mifsud raced clear and slipped the ball past Hogg but Valletta defender Josef Mifsud ran back to clear the danger.

After the interval, Zammit withdrew Fenech for Renie Forace who went in to fill the left side of Valletta's defence with Steve Bezzina moving in central defence and Backhaus advancing upfield.

It was Floriana who almost struck on the restart when Mifsud found space in the City half but shot over from an inviting position.

That was the prelude of what was to come as on 50 minutes, Krsteski shot hard from a free-kick, Hogg failed to hold and Mifsud was quick to hit the rebound home.

Mifsud could have added further damage to the Citizens on 67 minutes when in another swift break he outpaced the City defenders but his angled drive hit the side netting.

Mifsud was withdrawn a minute later to make way for Yala Bolasie as Doncic looked to put in some fresh legs upfront. Valletta's response was to introduce Kurt Magro in place of Josef Mifsud to add more support in his team's forward line.

The moved seemed to reap instant dividends as 11 minutes from time Valletta pulled a goal back. Agius did well to release Zammit who coolly fired the ball past the Floriana goalkeeper.

However, any hopes Valletta might have had of rescuing the match were ended in stoppage time when Bolasie released Caruana who sped through and beat Hogg to make it 3-1.

Valletta were stunned but they still managed to score again when Zammit was first on a Camilleri corner to head past Agius.

But that goal came too late as Floriana held tight for a deserved derby win.

Valletta: A. Hogg-5.5, K. Scicluna-5.5, H. Backhaus-6, J. Mifsud-5.5 ('79 K. Magro), S. Bezzina-6, I. Zammit-6.5, K. Fenech-5.5 ('46 R. Forace-5), D. Camilleri-6, D. Falzon-6, G. Agius-6.5, S. Monesterolo-5.

Floriana: S. Agius-6, M. Micallef-6.5, J. Briffa-6, D. Krsteski-8, D. Pisani-6.5, T. Cilia-6.5, C. Cassar-7 ('89 C. Ciantar), Z. Levnaic-7, M. Brincat-6 ('73 M. Gauci), C. Caruana-7.5, A. Mifsud-7.5 ('68 Y. Bolasie-6).

Referee: Anton Zammit.

Scorers: Caruana 30, 90+1, A. Mifsud 50; Zammit 79, 90+3.

Yellow cards: Zammit, Levnaic, Forace, Bezzina, G. Agius.

BoV Player of the Match: Darko Krsteski (Floriana).