Balzan earned a hard-fought passage to the FA Trophy semi-final. Balzan stormed into a double lead inside the first 15 minutes.

On 11 minutes, Balzan ripped the Lija defence apart, as a punt from Paul Fenech found Cadu shooting low at Jonathan Martinelli, who could only partially block the ball but Alex Alves was on hand to hammer in from the edge of the area after the ball took a deflection off Daniel Scerri.

Three minutes later, a cross by Bojan Kaljevic from the right found Uros Ljubomirac hitting spectacularly for the second goal.

Still, with two goals in it, the issue was not yet resolved. Lija won a free-kick on the edge of the area. From the ensuing dead ball, Aaron Sammut curled his shot over the wall and out of Ivan Janjusevic’s reach as the ball sailed into the net.

Lija opened the second half in a more adventurous vein as coach Joseph Galea opted for a double substitution after the break when Clinch McAllister and Patrick Borg were introduced on the pitch in lieu of Carl Cassar and Leon Muscat.

Balzan regained their two-goal cushion with seven minutes to go.

A fine one-two between Ljubomirac and Siraj Arab released the latter on the right. The menacing low cross found Cadu on the other side, who slotted the ball home.