Floriana 2
Verma 14, Wasiu 65.
Qormi 2
Pisani 4, 63
Floriana and Qormi gave life to a lively encounter which saw the two Championship Pool hopefuls share four goals at the Tedesco Stadium yesterday.
Both teams showed great effort to try and pick up three valuable points that would boost their push for a top six finish but in the end they both had to be content with a point that did little to improve their placing in the standings.
For Qormi, the result brought to a halt a negative run of two successive defeats while for the Greens yesterday’s outcome put them back on track after last week’s disappointing defeat to Mosta.
Stephen Azzopardi, who yesterday was flanked by his new assistant Joe Brincat, awarded a starting berth to midfielder Luke Sciberras as Gabriel Buttigieg had to settle with a place on the substitutes bench.
Clyde Borg was restored to the Floriana initial XI, taking up the duties from Kane Farrugia who was ruled out by suspension.
Hardly four minutes from the start of the game had elapsed when Qormi opened the scoring.
Vincenzo Pisani capitalised on a mistake by Floriana goalkeeper Jonathan Debono who failed to hold onto Gaetan Spiteri’s shot and the Italian striker stabbed the ball home from close in.
But Qormi’s joy was shortlived as Floriana drew level on 14 minutes.
The Greens were awarded a free-kick and Arman Verma curled the ball round the Qormi wall and into the net.
After that bright start, the match slowly died down with scoring chances few and far between.
Floriana were enjoying plenty of possession but they were almost hit with a sucker punch in the 37th minute.
Aboubakar Bello-Osagie embarked on a mazy run that took him past two Floriana defenders but his shot was blocked by the alert Tyrone Farrugia.
Bello-Osagie served up another early warning when in the third minute of the second half he exchanged passes with Pisani with the latter making headway in the Floriana half before hitting from a favourable position but was denied by Debono.
Soon after, coach Azzopardi sent on Joseph Chetcuti for Spiteri.
Chetcuti made an immediate impact on the game when he played a key role in Qormi’s second goal.
The clock marked 65 minutes when Roderick Sammut’s long punt forward was headed down by Kris Thackray towards Chetcuti who immediately set Pisani through the heart of Floriana’s defence. The Italian forward coolly despatched the ball past Debono.
Floriana’s response was again instant and equalised two minutes later.
Trevor Cilia demonstrated the verve that made him such a coveted player in the past year with a surging run before serving Sunday Wasiu who squeezed the ball underneath Qormi goalkeeper Steve Sultana.
Seven minutes from time, Leighton Grech jinked his way into the box and guided his pass into the box. Substitute Sebastiano Sirito turned swiftly and produced an audacious back-heel that surprised the Floriana goalkeeper but not Farrugia who cleared the ball off the line.
Floriana: J. Debono-5.5, T. Farrugia-7, D. Pisani-6, O. Bugeja-6, C. Borg-6 (80 T. Paris), C. Tremarco-6, V. Alhinho-5, A. Verma-6.5, T. Cilia-6.5, S. Wasiu-6.5, R. Darmanin-4.5.
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Qormi: S. Sultana-5, K. Thackray-5, R. Sammut-6.5, M. Bartolo-6, V. Pisani-7.5, A. Bello-Osagie-6.5 (72 S. Sirito-5), Edison-5.5, G. Spiteri-5.5 (55 J.Chetcuti-5), J. Bondin-6, L. Sciberras-6, L. Grech-6 (82 M. Gauci).
Referee Fyodor Zammit.
Yellow cards Tremarco, Grech, Paris.
Man of the match Vincenzo Pisani (Qormi).
Attendance: 720.