TARXIEN RAINBOWS 7 RABAT AJAX 1
Tarxien Rainbows cruised past Rabat Ajax to secure their premier league statues. As the scoeline clearly indicates, this was a mismatch with the Rainbows in a class of their own as they needed a win to seal their survival mission.
The Rainbows were soon on the offensive and they opened the scoring in their first notable raid on nine minutes when David Azzopardi in trying to block William Barbosa’s cross, the Rabat defender was adjudged to have touched the ball with his hands. Touré rammed his spot-kick past the diving Jonathan Azzopardi, the Rabat goalkeeper.
That goal goal settled any nerves Tarxien might have had as they continued to call the tune.
The magpies’ defensive weaknesses were exposed by Jorge past quarter of the hour mark when the Brazilian was allowed space and time to wriggle his way inside the Rabat box to put the Rainbows 2-0 up.
The Ajax’s early woes further deepened when 21 minutes into the game, Jorge delivered an inviting ball into the Rabat box and in came defender Steven Bonnici who dived to head the ball home.
The Rainbows were in rampant mood in those early stages. In the 27th minute, Barbosa advanced on the left before unleashing a rasping drive that arrowed over Azzopardi and into the far corner.
Rabat failed to thwart Tarxien from adding a fifth goal on 39 minutes. Touré ran onto an inch-perfect through ball by Barbosa, to stab home from routine distance.
Tarxien were not finished yet and on 42 minutes they made it 6-0. Karl Pulo got himself on the end of Carlo Mamo cross before he slotted the ball into the net with Touré’s dummy fooling the Rabat goalkeeper.
Tarxien’s siege showed no signs of abating after the break. From a corner action, Pulo’s dipping cross was met by Daniel Mariano Bueno whose flick had the better of Azzopardi.
Clive Mizzi’s troops took their foot off the pedal, much to the relief of the Rabat who were now sharing the exchanges with their opponents even though they rarely ventured inside Nicky Vella’s box.
But in a rare attack, in the 69th minute, Diego Carrillo Pendas grabbed a consolation goal when firing into the top corner after receiving from substitute Aidan Azzopardi, who came in for Jonathan Bajada, early in the first half.