Exiles Elle-et-Vire's fighting display in their 10-6 defeat to Neptunes last weekend must have bolstered their self-confidence ahead of today's match against Sirens Centro Casalinga.

The big guns have been widely tipped to coast through their Preliminary Round commiments against the sides that normally compete in the second tier of Maltese waterpolo but the likes of Exiles and San Ġiljan will fancy their chances of causing a few upsets, especially after their creditable showing in the BOV Winter League.

The Sirens-Exiles fixture is the highlight of the second batch of matches from the Preliminary Round of the BOV Summer League.

While Exiles are hopeful of getting their first points on board this evening, Sirens are aiming to make it two wins from two matches after they launched their summer campaign with a comfortable 11-3 win over Ta' Xbiex Mermaids Paradise.

Both Sirens and Exiles paraded two new overseas players last weekend. Exiles have opted for two Frenchmen in R. Blari and Aurelien Cousin while Sirens have registered two from Hungary, Arpad Babas and Attila Barany.

San Ġiljan Tropicana Juices, 13-2 winners over Marsaxlokk Freeport in the summer league's opening match, should prove too strong for Ta' Xbiex who had no injection of 'foreign power' during their loss to Sirens.

On the other hand, the inclusion of two foreign players in their team for their opening match, namely Rado Gosdodilov and Vladimir Kritkovic, underlines San Ġiljan's bold intentions to cut a good figure in this year's summer league.

Tomorrow, rivals Neptunes Vodafone and Sliema McDonald's should encounter little trouble to extend their winning start at the expense of Marsascala Ocean and Sky and Marsaxlokk respectively.

Sliema's two overseas players, Raymond Fodor and Robert Kovacs, were prominent in the Blues' 18-6 win over Marsascala last weekend but Hungarian Adam Decker and Ivan Milakovic had a quiet debut for Neptunes in the victory over Exiles.

Programme

Today - 6.15 p.m. Sirens vs Exiles; 7.30 p.m. San Ġiljan vs Ta' Xbiex.
Tomorrow - 5.15 p.m. Marsascala vs Neptunes; 6.30 p.m. Sliema vs Marsaxlokk.

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