BALZAN                     1

Ljubomirac 1

SENGLEA ATHLETIC    2

Mrsulja 61, Caseres 66

Senglea made it three out of three in 2019, in their bid to revive their season.

This time they came back from an early goal after just 27 seconds, to overpower a timid Balzan side 2-1.

Straight from kick-off, Uros Ljubomirac put the finishing touch on the move to score what proved to be the quickest goal of the season so far.

Five Balzan players touched the ball more than once in the move leading to Ljubomirac’s opener, without Senglea touching the ball. Kadu jinked past several players as he burst into the area before squaring for Andrija Majdevac. The Serbian striker was his effort deflected by a sliding challenge from a Senglea defender but Ljubomirac pounced on the rebound to bury the ball behind Matthew Farrugia.

Conceding a goal in the first minute would have conditioned the performance of any team but this Senglea side battled superbly to stay in touch and had a hatful of chances of their own in the opening 45 minutes.

Senglea’s self-belief, that earned them two consecutive victories was most evident in the second-half when Steve Sultana fumbled a free-kick by Diego Venancio and Arian Mruslja tapped the rebound home from five metres out.

Vincenzo Potenza’s side maintained the high tempo and took the lead on 66 minutes. The goal again owed much to Taisei Marukawa’s speed and perseverance as the pacey winger roared on the left-flank before delivering a vicious cross in the middle, Augusto Caseres sped into the box to reach the Japanese’ cross. Ricardo Correa’s goal-line clearance only served to send the ball into the path of Caseres who hammered home the ball.

Senglea Athletic's Taisei Marukawa was named BOV Player of the match.