Żebbuġ Rangers 0
Victoria Hotspurs 3
Bajada 9; Apap 27; Vasilic 89 pen;
Victoria Hotspurs stunned Żebbuġ Rangers with a fine first-half performance as they managed to outplay the Premier League strugglers yesterday.
Alfonso Greco, the Żebbuġ coach, opted to leave five regular players from his started XI as he looked to give some playing time to a number of fringe players. This failed to reap dividends as the Rangers struggled to break down a resolute Hotspurs side.
Victoria took just nine minutes to go ahead when Jonathan Bajada picked up a short rebound from the Żebbuġ defence and hit a low crisp drive from just outside the area that had the better of Żebbuġ goalkeeper Jeffrey Farrugia.
Żebbuġ stormed into action and three minutes later Miguel Ciantar headed just wide from a Lee James Agius cross.
A minute later, Jose Filippe Aguiar found Rodney Buttigieg whose effort was somehow kept out by the alert Farrugia.
The Hotspurs again came close to a second goal on 18 minutes when Aguiar hit a rasping drive that finished just over.
Five minutes later, Matthew Gauci sent a cross towards John Nwoba who saw his header turned away by Matthew Vella.
But it was Victoria who doubled their lead on 27 minutes. Ferdinando Apap rose well to head home following a Mark Buhagiar corner.
On the restart, Żebbuġ effected three substitutions when roping in Carlo Monti, Matthew Bartolo and Bojan Mamic as Greco looked to rejuvenate his team.
But despite these changes the Hotspurs frustrated Żebbuġ with some fine defending.
In fact, Żebbuġ had to wait until the 70th minute to threaten the Hotspurs defence.
In a quick break, Bartolo picked Monti who hit a firm drive that was blocked by Buhagiar.
On 75 minutes, Żebbuġ thought they had pulled a goal back when Bartolo broke free and lobbed the ball over Vella. But, the ‘goal’ was annulled for offside.
The Gozitans sealed the issue a minute from time when Nikola Vasilic was brought down in the area by Farrugia and from the resultant penalty Vasilic drilled the ball home.
Żebbuġ: J. Farrugia, J. Borg, Y. Camilleri, R. Mandic, M. Gauci, M. Farrugia, C. Gauci, L. Agius (46 C. Monti), M. Ciantar, C. Polli (46 M. Bartolo), J. Nwoba (46 B. Mamic).
Victoria H.: M. Vella, D. Farrugia, M. Buhagiar, J. Bajada, F. Apap, M. Bamba, J. Aguiar Caldeira, R. Buttigieg, N. Vasilic, O. Curmi (64 J. Pace), D. Mercieca.
Referee: Mario Apap.
Yellow cards: Britto, Aguiar.