VALLETTA-2, HIBERNIANS-1

Valletta won the pre-season Euro Cup Friendly Tournament after beating Hibernians 2-1 to secure top spot in the four-team standings on seven points.

Tunisian midfielder-cum-forward Abdelkarim Nafti was the toast of Valletta after hitting a brace to ensure that the champions started their 2014/15 commitments on a winning note.

The first half was a mediocre affair.

Valletta opened the scoring on 24 minutes when Roderick Briffa supplied a through-ball to Tunisian Nafti who drilled the ball past Jurgen Borg, the Hibernians goalkeeper.

Hibs equalised three minutes into the second half when Andrew Cohen, who had just come on as a substitute, fired a low drive that had the better of goalkeeper Nicky Vella who was making his first appearance since rejoining Valletta from Tarxien Rainbows.

The second half was balanced with Hibs improving after a spate of substitutions but it was Valletta who snatched a late winner. Substitute Siraj Arab passed to Nafti who curled his shot past Daniel Balzan.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.