Hamrun Spartans 2, Qormi 3

Joseph Farrugia converted a 90th minute penalty kick to deny the Spartans a merited point.

After 8 minutes, Pereira lofted a pass but the Hamrun's defence failed to react for what lay ahead, allowing the nippy Luke Sciberras to curl a perfect finish beyond Omar Borg's grasp after eight minutes.

At that stage, defender Kenneth Scicluna had already denied Hamrun a goal after pouncing on Gaetan Spiteri's shot, clearing the ball off the line.

In the 13th minute, Hamrun survived anther intense moment when they were undone by another piece of magic by Matthew Bartolo, linking with Pereira only to see the latter's effort going wide.

Perhaps, Hamrun's first-half display did not merit a goal but they found the net when Farrugia punched badly from Calabretta's effort with the ball finishing in the path of Massimo Grima who blasted home.

Qormi restored the lead on the hour mark, thanks to Nwoke. Qormi went ahead when a superb cross from Bello Osagie fell between Gacesa and Fenech allowing Nwoke to force his way through the Hamrun defenders before dispatching the finish past the motionless Borg.

But any hopes for Qormi of using that goal as a foothold in the game were soon ended.

After 72 minutes, Hamrun's Carlo Polli hit the crossbar with a long-distance effort. Few moments later, the Swiss delivered a teasing cross that Rupert Mangion could not connect with.

But Hamrun were not to be denied as four minutes later, Kevin Sammit collected a short pass from the left by Ribeiro and with time and space to shoot, he fired superbly into the net.

As the Spartans fans were celebrating a deserved point the fourth official's board went up for four minutes of stoppage times – so it was obvious that Jesmond Zammit's men were disappointed when Gacesa tripped Pereira, after an impressive run on the left flank. From the ensuing spot, Joseph Farrugia buried the ball behind Borg.