Top three teams, Hibernians, Luxol and Balzan, cruised to important victories in the FXDD Premier Division to continue with their challenge for the champion-ship.

Hibernians, who lead the standings with 52 points, beat Żabbar St Patrick 10-5 as Luxol, two points behind in second place, maintained their unbeaten run with a 5-2 win over Qormi. Third-placed Balzan moved to the 49-point mark after beating Pembroke 7-3.

Kevin Mifsud’s Hibernians produced another polished display to sweep aside the Żabbar challenge.

The Paolites opened a 5-1 lead before half-time and continued with their dominance by banging in five more after the break to make sure of victory.

Levan Kobaidze was three times on the mark for Hibs with Jose Carlos Careca and Celino Alves, both hitting a double. The other goals came from Xavier Saliba, Kurt Bartolo and an own goal.

Omar Toutoungi, Radoslav Kovachev and Frankie Xerri were among the scorers for Żabbar who are sixth in the standings.

Pembroke tried hard to avoid defeat against Balzan who laid siege on their opponents’ defensive lines right from the outset.

Gabriel Dobre (2), Andrea Dan (2), Jovica Milijic, Rennie Tanti and Boycho Marev scored for Balzan with Pembroke hitting back through Christopher Azzopardi, Stefan Cauchi and an own goal committed by Andrea Dan.

At the other end of the table, Birżebbuġa continued with their fine showings of late to extend a positive patch to six consecutive matches following a 10-3 victory over Żurrieq.

Claudio Calleja caught the eye with four goals and Aaron Dalli hit a hat-trick for Birżebbuġa who are joint eighth in the standings with Qormi on 22 points.

In other matches, Vittoriosa beat Melita 9-4 and Swieqi made it two wins on the trot after having the better of bottom-placed Luqa 5-2.

Luqa are now mathematically relegated to Division One.

Standings: Hibernians 52; Luxol 50; Balzan 49; Pembroke; San Ġwann, Żabbar 30; Ħamrun 24, Qormi, Birżebbuġa 22; Melita 17; Żurrieq, Mosta, Vittoriosa Stars 16; Swieqi 13; Luqa 10.

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