Tarxien 3 Rabat 1

Tarxien found the going easy as they defeated Rabat 3-1 in the first Premier League match today.

Tarxien missed the presence of defender Evaldo, who was suspended, but they wre boosted by the return of Daniel Mariano Bueno, Andrezinho, Justin Grioli and Manuel Caruana.

Lithuanian Nerijus Astrauskas started at the apex of Rabat Ajax's formation but lasted only six minutes before he was forced to go off, suffering pain after appearing to have aggravated an ankle problem. And Rabat's woes deepened two minutes later when some lax defending allowed Steven Bonnici to rise above all other to head in via the underside of the crossbar.

Rabat looked grateful for a slice of fortune when they were gifted the equaliser by Nicholas Vella in the 13th minute. Substitute Wayne Borg shot from outside the box, Vella threw his body in the way but let the ball slip under his legs.

Six minutes later, Tarxien regained their lead with a goal that owed as much to the striker's deadly efficiency as to another costly error this time by the goalkeeper. Goaler Mintoff flapped as he came out for the ball when trying to clear a corner by Andrezinho and Danilo tapped in for Tarxien after a goalmouth scramble.

Rabat were forced to make another change with Gaetano Gesualdi replacing Clive Brincat who was injured in a tackle, but the Rainbows failed to test out Rabat's reshuffled defence until half-time.

Mintoff looked to have regained his composure with a stunning save to keep out Andrezinho's free-kick three minutes after the interval.

But any hopes Rabat had of gaining a point out of this match disappeared on the hour when an exquisite one-two between Danilo and Bueno unlocked the Rabat defence as the latter let himself almost no margin of error in getting the ball between onrushing Mintoff and his near post.

Rabat suffered a third injury setback with winger Yan Cauchi limped off in the 63rd time and was replaced by Justin Felice. The Magpies's toils to haul themselves into contention were undone as Tarxien kept their opponents at arm's length in the last 30 minutes.

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