One look at the official line-ups before Sunday’s only game from the Challenge Cup would have left little doubt on the outcome of the game. While Rabat were at full force, Sliema were missing Luke Mallia, Dylan Lentini, Andrei Imbroll, Michael Caruana Smith, Liam Pace and Simon Baldacchino from their standard starting eleven.

Rabat are a hard nut to crack even on the best of days, so conceding seven first team players to them could only have one result.

The game, especially during the first half, had no story. Rabat pushed their foot down right from the first minute and Sliema were backtracking right from the first go.

After three minutes Micallef had saved off the line a Robert Aquilina short corner and after six minutes goal number one went in. Jonathan Seychell’s shot at goal was stopped by Farrugia in the Sliema goal but Perales was on the edge of the dee to smash in the rebound.

Two minutes later Perales attempted a reverse hit that was saved by Farrugia. On 13 minutes an Aquilina goal was correctly annulled but two minutes later it was Seychell who doubled the score following a Jason Vella cross.

Rabat kept the rhythm high with their midfield trio of Aquilina, Perales and Micallef constantly feeding their mobile front line of Seychell, Vella and Antonelli.

On 21 minutes Seychell got his second after being served by Antonelli. Five minutes later Robert Aquilina got onto the scoresheet when he fired in following a short corner move. The half closed on 5-0 when Chris Bugeja concluded another short corner.

Caruana Smith had little to lose and during half time reshuffled his formation. Sliema forced two short corners in the early minutes of the half and from the second Bezzina’s hit went just wide.

The half time seemed to knock out Rabat’s momentum and given the score line they seemed to ease off. They were still good enough to create a number of scoring chances but Sliema could have got a consolation goal when Bonnici failed to take advantage of a rebound following a save by the Rabat goalkeeper off a Bezzina hit. Rabat eventually got their half dozen when in the 29th minute it was Radojevic who scored from the edge of the dee.

Following this game three of the four semi-finalists are now known. Floriana YS will be facing Britannia Tours White Hart while Rabat will face the winner of the deciding game between Sliema Hs and Qormi. This game will be played on Sunday at 11am.