NAXXAR LIONS 2 SLIEMA WANDERERS 2

Naxxar Lions mounted a strong fightback to claw back two goals against Sliema Wanderers to earn a point.

Naxxar were on the backfoot from the start. The Lions could not live with the Wanderers’ pace and precision passing and had already been carved open once before Alex Muscat scored after five minutes. There appeared little danger when Trevor Cilia turned into the Naxxar box a low direct free-kick, but Pape Gueye detected a slight error in Evaldo’s positioning and ruthlessly punished him before Alex Muscat slotted the Senglease striker’ inviting cross past Julian Azzopardi with another confident finish.

Sliema continued to look dangerous with Gueye posing plenty of problems for Naxxar. Shy of the first quarter, Alfonso Greco’s men doubled the lead and it was the result of a quick counter-attacking move with Palemtio Barbetti finding John Mintoff on the left flank who ran forward before finding Gueye at the centre and the Senglese striker put the ball across goal for Cilia to finish.

But the lapses in concentarion that have cost Sliema in the previous games struck again when Gilmar played an excellent through ball to Andre’ da Silva who outpaced Alessandro Rapino to beat Henry Bonello with a low strike.

Shy the hour mark, Naxxar were level with Evaldo poked home Pablo Doffo’s free-kick from the right as the Sliema rearguard failed with deal with the Argentine’s delivery.

The equaliser sparked a flurry of Sliema chances. In the 63rd minute, Cilia delivered an excellent deep cross for substitute Ivan Woods whose close-range shot hit the foot of the post and from the rebound Barbetti drove the ball wide.

Sliema’s faltering hopes of a winner looked all but over 17 minutes from time when Alessandro Rapino was given his marching orders from referee Paul Caruana for a reckless foul on Gilmar.