QORMI-2, FLORIANA-4

Floriana underlined their progress under English coach Iain Brunskill as they came from two goals down to beat Qormi 4-2 in an entertaining match at the Hibs Stadium.

Igor Coronado was again inspirational for the Greens as the Brazilian shrugged off an early penalty miss to spark his team's second-half comeback after Qormi had taken an undeserved two-goal half-time lead.

Thanks to this win, Floriana have all but made sure of retaining their Premier League status as they moved 13 points clear of second-from-bottom Hamrun Spartans with only five matches remaining.

The game was off to a brisk start. Floriana threatened to go ahead after just two minutes. Steve Pisani broke through on the right before hitting an inviting cross but Igor Coronado's header rattled the crossbar.

On seven minutes, Floriana won a penalty after Qormi defender Jonathan Bondin floored Coronado in the penalty area. Floriana's Brazilian striker saw his spot-kick blocked by Matthew Farrugia and from the rebound, Pisani's effort rolled against the base of the far post.

Floriana paid dearly for this miss as in their first attack, Qormi opened the scoring. Spanish forward Moises Avila Perez advanced on the left before crossing for Alfred Effiong who headed home at the near post.

Qormi's opener came as a bolt out of the blue for the erstwhile superior Floriana. Coronado went close to an equaliser on 21 minutes but his diagonal shot from outside the box flew wide.

The Greens stayed on the attack. A cross by Coronado just eluded Cilia while a dangerous shot by Clyde Borg was blocked by the Qormi defenders.Coronado opened up the Qormi defence with a twisting run in the box but his cross for Pisani was cleared by Qormi.

Floriana persisted with their attacks, Trevor Cilia just failing to get his head to a Coronado cross. Clyde Borg had a dangerous shot blocked by the Qormi defence.

In their next attack, and against the run of play, Qormi doubled their lead five minutes from the break after Sacha Borg, under pressure from Effiong, handled the ball in the box. Avila Perez scored from the spot to make it 2-0.

Floriana should have halved the deficit on the stroke of time when Trevor Cilia's cross dropped to Pisani whose close-range attempt was pushed out by Farrugia and, from the rebound, Owen Bugeja's attempt was also blocked.After Cilia fired over from an angled position, Floriana pulled one back thanks to Coronado whose swerving drive from outside the penalty area had the better of Farrugia.

Qormi's Christian Cassar blasted over from the distance before the brilliant Coronado threatened again with another fine shot that sailed just wide of the far post.The score became 2-2 on 64 minutes after Pisani swept the ball past Farrugia after being sent clear by Cyde Borg.

Six minutes later, Qormi were reduced to 10 men after Luke Sciberras was shown a second yellow card for a late tackle on Coronado. Floriana capitalised as, 17 minutes from time, Clyde Borg drilled a strong shot past Farrugia after receiving from Pisani.Five minutes from time, Floriana sealed the issue through Pisani who sped clear before hitting past Farrugia.

Pisani was named BOV player of the match.