Lethal Nwoke leaves champs reeling

Birkirkara 1
Galea 38;
Floriana 5
Nwoke 11, 19, 29, 49; Woods 84;

Daniel Nwoke destroyed champions Birkirkara single-handed yesterday as he scored four goals in Floriana’s 5-1 win that sent a stern warning to the Greens’ rivals in the race for places in European football next season.

Pre-match forecasts had predicted a close encounter between two teams fighting for a top-three finish and who started the day separated by just one point.

However, in the end this turned out to be a non-contest as Floriana fully profited from a shoddy defensive display by the champions with Nwoke severely punishing the Stripes four times to increase his tally of goals to 12 since his arrival in January.

Victory lifted Floriana to second place in the standings on 23 points, one ahead of Marsaxlokk and two better off than Birkirkara with five matches to go.

Coach Paul Zammit had a full Birkirkara squad at his disposal. Midfielders Shaun Bajada and Ibrahim Babatunde were named among the subs as Rowen Muscat and Emiliano Lattes were preferred to start.

Michael Woods, the Floriana coach, was boosted by the recovery of frontmen Ivan Woods and Mohammed El Yamani to start in attack alongside Nwoke. Dragomir Draganov was not in the Greens’ squad.

Floriana showed their intentions right from the start and after a handful of minutes Ivan Woods sped through but his shot was pushed away by Bartolo.

Michael Galea ran to reach a Paul Fenech pass at the other end but he was anticipated by Lofti Saidi, the Floriana keeper.

Nwoke scored his first goal on 11 minutes. Stripes defender Nikola Vukanac headed the ball towards Bartolo but his pass lacked power and in dashed the Nigerian who slotted home past the keeper.

The Stripes looked stunned and suffered a further setback eight minutes later when Manolito Micallef again exposed Birkirkara’s deficiencies at the back when his throughball reached Nwoke who rounded Bartolo before depositing inside an empty net.

Zammit was clearly unhappy with his team’s display. At this juncture, only Lattes looked capable of posing problems to the Floriana defence. However, his contribution alone was futile.

The match looked practically over as early as the 29th minute with Floriana’s third goal.

Woods released Nwoke with another precise ball and the latter again showed great scoring instinct when lashing the ball inside the Birkirkara net.

Birkirkara were clearly running in circles. However, they should have pulled a goal back when from a Trevor Cilia delivery, Lattes saw his diving header somehow kept out by Saidi and from the rebound Ryan Scicluna fired over.

Then, seven minutes from half-time, the Stripes were dropped a lifeline. Saidi mistimed his sortie to field Cilia’s cross, the ball fell kindly to Galea who had the easiest of jobs to score.

Game on, many thought as Saidi made amends for his mistake a minute later when he dived to his right to palm away Galea’s menacing shot.

However, that was not the case.

At half-time, Zammit looked to revitalise his squad when he withdrew Vukanac and Scicluna and roped in Joseph Zerafa and Babatunde. However, the serious lapses at the back again came to haunt the team as on 49 minutes Andrei Agius tried to cover the ball for Bartolo but in nipped the powerful Nwoke who chipped the ball home to make it 4-1.

Bartolo did well to keep out Woods’s grounder but Birkirkara’s afternoon took a further turn to the worse when Agius was dismissed for a second booking after pushing the ball into the Greens’ net with his hand from a Cilia free-kick.

Lattes remained Birkirkara’s source of inspiration and on 80 minutes he unleashed a powerful drive that was dealt with by Saidi.

Floriana’s rout was completed six minutes from time, Woods beating Bartolo from a free-kick outside the box.

Birkirkara
M. Bartolo-4, T. Cilia-5, P. Fenech 5, N. Vukanac-4 (46 J. Zerafa-5.5), R. Scicluna-5 (46 I. Babatunde-5), E. Lattes-6.5, R. Muscat-5, A. Agius, A. Decesare-5 (77 S. Bajada), M. Galea-5.5, A. Buhagiar-4.5.

Floriana
L. Saidi-5, D. Pisani-6, T. Farrugia-6.5, T. Paris-6.5 (89 S. Borg), M. Micallef-6, C. Cassar-7, C. Caruana-6.5, P. Doffo-7, M. El Yamani-5 (46 C. Borg-6), I. Woods-7.5, D. Nwoke-8 (86 J. Borg).

Referee: Kevin Azzopardi.

Yellow cards: Agius, Bartolo, Nwoke, Paris, Decesare.

Red card: Agius (B) 60.

BOV Player of the match: Daniel Nwoke (Floriana).