Mosta’s Fabio Vignaroli tries to find a way past Steve Sadowski, of Tarxien. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Mosta 2
Vignaroli 19; Mitev 67;
Tarxien 4
Tanti 25; Bueno 45, 63; Mamo 55;

Tarxien were back to winning ways when they came from behind to beat Mosta 4-2 at the National Stadium yesterday.

This was the Rainbows’ first win after a barren run of three matches which had seen them take just one point after a goalless draw against Sliema and back-to-back defeats to Birkirkara and Hibernians.

The match turned out to be highly entertaining with both teams playing attacking football with the Rainbows looking home and dry just past the hour as they held a comfortable three-goal lead which they easily administered till the end.

The Rainbows made five changes from that the team that lost against Hibernians last week. Steve Sado-wski, Manuel Caruana, Mark Tanti, David Fenech and Gianluca Calabretta were all in the starting formation as Branislav Timotic was suspended while Roderick Bajada, Leandro, Ryan Sammut and Orosco Anonam paid the price for their lame showing in the derby.

Danilo Doncic’s first team selection featured three alte-rations from the 6-1 defeat against Valletta as second-choice goal-keeper Noel Attard was given the chance to shine, Alex Cini repla-ced the injured Carlo Campagnoli while Kurt Zammit was preferred to Kurt Magro.

Tarxien enjoyed more pos-session early on but it was Mosta who stormed ahead after 19 minutes.

Steve Bonnici sent Mano Micallef crashing to the ground in Mosta’s first venture towards the Rainbows penalty area.n Fabio Vignaroli produced a delightful right-foot strike that bent away from Nicky Vella’s despairing dive.

That early setback sparked Tarxien into action and on 24 minutes Andrew Agius zipped open the Mosta defence as he deposited the ball towards the unmarked Bueno but the Brazilian lost his composure when he found himself face to face with Attard.

But Bueno made up for this miss moments later when he turned provider as he set up Mark Tanti who drilled his shot past Attard and into the low corner to make it 1-1.

The game continued to oscillate from one end to the other and three minutes before half-time, Alex Cini picked the ball up inside his own area and then set off in powerful direct run up field. He dodged five challenges past the halfway line but when entering the Tarxien box, Carlo Mamo came out to meet him and finally cleared the ball.

But on the stroke of half-time, the Rainbows seized the lead.

Attard repelled successive attempts by Andrezinho but Fernando Apap miscued his clearance attempt and Bueno pounced on to the loose ball to head home.

In the light of their fluent performance in the second part of the first half, it seemed reasonable to assume that the Rainbows would step up their efforts to put the result beyond their opponents reach.

In fact, on 50 minutes, Andre-zinho directed a cross towards the near post with Mosta goalkeeper Attard just pushing the ball away with his foot. But Mamo was first on the rebound to fire the ball into the net.

The onus was now on Mosta to grab back the initiative and in the 55th minute, Danail Mitev by-passed the Rainbows with a wonderful run through the middle area but elected to chip the ball over the onrushing Vella but his effort dropped onto the bar and out of play.

Mosta were unable to stem Tarxien’s tide and after 63 minutes, Agius initiated again the move in midfield, squaring the ball to the advancing Gianluca Calabretta before whipping in a teasing shot that Attard only managed to palm away in the path of Bueno who hit home.

This goal enable Bueno to join Michael Mifsud at the top of the scoring charts with 18 goals.

Now three goals to the good, Tarxien took their foot off the pedal and Mosta narrowed the gap seven minutes past the hour.

Exploiting acres of open space in midfield, Vignaroli intelligently released Mitev who turned well before beating Vella.

Mitev, one of the best players on view, contined to hassle Tarxien with his powerful runs.

Nine minutes from time he embarked on a powerful run before serving Micallef who saw his header coming off the bar.

Mosta
N. Attard-6, F. Apap-4 (59 K. Magro-4), T. Farrugia-5, B. Agius-5 (73 G. Sammut), M. Micallef-5.5, R. Grech-4, D. Mitev-7, A. Cini-6.5, F. Vignaroli-6, B. Chiwado Mbonu-4.5 (61 J. Bajada), K. Zammit-5.

Tarxien Rainbows
N. Vella-6, S. Sadowski-5, C. Mamo-6, M. Caruana-5 (66 C. Fenech-4), A. Agius-7.5, Andrezinho-5.5, M. Tanti-7 (83 N. Vella), D. Bueno-6, D. Fenech-5, G. Calabretta-5, S. Bonnici-5.

Referee: Chris Lautier

BOV player of the match: Daniel Mariano Bueno (Tarxien Rainbows)