Zach Muscat was back in Arezzo’s starting formation as the Maroons grabbed a 1-0 win over Racing Roma to maintain their good start to the season.
Muscat had missed out on Arezzo’s 3-2 defeat to Cremonese as he was on international duty for Malta’s 2018 World Cup Group F qualifiers against England and Lithuania.
But Arezzo coach Stefano Sottili immediately restored the Birkirkara defender to his starting line-up for Racing Roma’s visit on Sunday.
Davide Moscardelli converted a penalty on the stroke of half-time as Arezzo strengthened their grip on fourth place in the standings on 17 points, eight adrift of early pace-setters Alessandria.
On Saturday, Arezzo face a tough trip to Livorno.
Andrè Schembri was a second-half substitute as Boavista eased into the second round of the Portuguese Cup with a 2-0 win at Uniao Leiria last Saturday.
The Malta striker came on for Erivelto with 18 minutes to go as Boavista won courtesy of goals from Iuri and Lucas inside the opening 15 minutes.
Schembri now hopes to regain his first-team place for the Primeira league match away to Madeira on Saturday.
In England, Luke Gambin’s Barnet crashed to a disappointing 4-1 league defeat at home to Exeter.
The Malta winger was again left out of the starting formation despite netting in his team’s 3-2 defeat at Doncaster last week.
Gambin was introduced on 68 minutes, replacing Alex Nicholls, with the Bees already trailing 3-1.
The 23-year-old made no impact as Barnet conceded a late goal to suffer their second successive defeat. Barnet are now second from bottom, level on 12 points with Leyton Orient.
In his aftermatch comments, Barnet manager Martin Allen took full responsibility for the defeat and gave Gambin hope of more playing time when he declared that he will effect several changes to his starting XI for Saturday’s trip to Wycombe Wanderers.
Sam Magri played no part in Dover Athletic’s 4-2 defeat at Gateshead in a National League game on Saturday.
The defender, who was among the best players for the Malta U-21s in their victories over Latvia (1-0) and Moldova (3-2), was not included in the 18-man squad as Dover slipped to ninth in the standings on 25 points.
On Saturday, Magri will hope to earn a recall as Dover play at home to Braintree.