Qormi 2
Sliema Hotsticks 0

Despite winning 2-0, Qormi generally failed to live up to expectations as they struggled to break down a young and lively Sliema team in a Challenge Cup match.

Play was mainly confined to the Sliema half but scoring chances were few and far between.

On 26 minutes, Sliema were unlucky to lose their centre-back Dylan Lentini who was having a great game in defence.

A minute later, Qormi coach Ray Micallef brought on Phillip Magri and the latter took only two minutes to leave his mark as he put his team 1-0 ahead. In the 33rd minute, Jonathan Borg's dipper, from a short corner action, beat the Sliema defence. Two-nil for Qormi.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first with the only action worthy of note being a deflection by Ludwig Xuereb, from a Joseph Cuschieri cross-hit, which smacked against the upright.

Umpires: Reno Cremona, Luke Busuttil Leaver.

White Hart 2
Young Stars 4

From the initial whistle, White Hart went straight on the attack.

They kept up the pressure until the sixth minute but their efforts failed to yield an opener. By this stage, Young Stars had settled down and in their first attack, they were awarded a penalty stroke from which veteran Charles Micallef opened the scoring.

White Hart forced an instant reaction. After winning a series of corners, they equalised through David Agius who deflected the ball home from a Luke Borg Costanzi pass.

A minute past the half hour, Young Stars regained their lead when Michal Margolien got a decisive touch to the ball from a hit by Chris Attard.

The half ended with two excellent saves by White Hart goalkeeper Vassallo Agius from efforts by Micallef and Mark Camilleri.

On the resumption, White Hart went all out in search of an equaliser which they managed to obtain courtesy of the evergreen Agius.

He had the better of three defenders just inside the shooting area and fired a reverse hit past Waylin Abdilla.

Fourteen minutes into the second half, Young Stars won another penalty stroke after the ball was kicked off the goal-line. Micallef made it two out of two by flicking the ball in the top-right corner.

Try as they might, White Hart could not find the right openings and it was no surprise when Young Stars sealed the issue through Joseph Dalli who tapped in a cross by Margolien.

Umpires: Robert Aquilina, Manuel Imbroll.

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