Victories for Senglea and Mqabba

There were wins for Senglea Athletics (2-1 over San Ġwann) and Mqabba (3-1 over Rabat Ajax) in the Maltco Lotteries KO tournament at the Victor Tedesco Stadium, yesterday.

Senglea made it two wins out of two in the group stages of the competition as after beating St George's in their previous match, yesterday they beat San Ġwann 2-1.

For the Saints this was their second consecutive defeat after losing their first encounter against Mosta.

The first stages of the Senglea-San Ġwann tie were rather uneventful with both teams preferring to adopt cautious tactics and effecting a tight cover to their defensive lines instead of going for goal.

Then, right on the half-hour mark, Leeroy Bonnett managed to find space in the San Ġwann box, after some good work by Brady Zerafa, and hit home from close range.

On 36 minutes, Firaz Aboulezz almost drew the scores level when he found himself clear in the opponents' half but fluffed his chance. On 41 minutes, Felice came close for Senglea as Zahra missed a good chance for San Ġwann just before half-time.

On 53 minutes, Senglea missed another glorious chance to double the score when Felice shot wide after a fine pass by Ellul. On 57 minutes, however, Felice made amends with a cute lob from well outside the box to shock Spiteri and put Senglea 2-0 up.

San Ġwann managed to reduce the deficit on 78 minutes when Farrugia slammed home from close range after a melee in the box.

The game, controlled by referee Chris Lautier, had a frantic finale with Senglea holding on for a deserved win and all three points.

In the second match of the afternoon, Mqabba's experience prevailed as they beat newly-promoted Rabat in an entertaining encounter where more goals could have been scored but both sides were guilty of missing some sitters.

Mqabba took only a minute to forge ahead when Mead Mifsud headed home an inch-perfect cross by Shawn Magro.

Rabat upped their game and could have equalised through Adam Smeir on 32 minutes but Mqabba preserved their lead until half-time.

On resumption, Rabat went close when Mqabba defender Mark Anthony Psaila cleared the ball off the line following a Glenn Magri effort.

Paul Chimezie, who could have added more goals for Mqabba, practically sealed the issue with 10 minutes left on the clock.

John Paul Muscat nodded the ball into the path of Chimezie who outwitted his direct marker and goalkeeper Jonathan Azzopardi before hitting home.

On 92 minutes, Josef Tonna's cross-shot deceived Chris Calleja in goal as the Mqabba goalkeeper punched the ball into his own net.

But, Mqabba quickly restored their two-goal lead when Chimezie scored his second goal of the afternoon following another inviting Magro cross.