Balzan, Hibernians to contest play-off final

Balzan and Hibernians will contest the FXDD Futsal Cham-pionship play-offs final next week after winning their semi-finals against Tarxien and Żejtun respectively.

Having beaten Tarxien 5-3 in the first leg, Balzan were made to fight hard to protect their lead as the Rainbows, led by Romanian futsal internationals Gabriel Dobre and Emil Raducu, produced a brave performance in the second leg.

Tarxien started well to take the lead through Raducu but Balzan, inspired by player-coach Florin Anton, levelled the scores before half-time.

The Rainbows pressed hard to establish a lead but Balzan hit their opponents with a series of deadly counter-attacks to stay ahead, winning the game 6-5.

In the other semi-final, Hibernians were the better side as they outmuscled Żejtun Corinthians 7-4.

Bobo Marev and Cedric Sciberras were inspirational for Hibs who took a four-goal lead into the second leg after an 8-4 win in the opening match.

Żejtun opened the scoring through Charlò Magro but Hibs soon regained their composure to take control of the game.

The first leg of the play-offs final will be played on Monday with the second leg the following Friday.

Both games will be staged at the Corradino Pavilion, starting at 8pm.

Incidentally, this will be the second final between Hibs and Balzan in the space of three weeks after the two met in the FXDD futsal KO which went Balzan’s way, 6-3.