The competition continues today with the second match between Hibernians and Birkirkara, 1-0 losers against Sliema in last Monday’s opening match.

The Paolites, winners of the FA Trophy in May, were the first club to start preparing for the new season. They have retained more or less the same squad as that of last season, though they might have some new foreigners, including Udo Nwoko, who is returning after a highly successful loan spell at Mosta last season.

As for Birkirkara, after their defeat against Sliema, their only interest today is to win and then hope that Hibs beat Sliema to share the Cup as all teams would finish on a par with two points each.

In the opening match on Monday, Sliema and Birkirkara failed to include some of their top players, including the foreigners, while giving a good number of youngsters a chance to have a go.

However, this afternoon, the Stripes are hoping to include their new foreigners among their ranks. These include former Poland No. 1 goalie Andrzej Bledzewski, Italian central defender Guido Gallovic and another Italian, Angelo Paradiso, a former Italy Under 21 midfielder, who also played for Lecce and Napoli in the past in the Serie A.

These players arrived yesterday.

The Stripes also said that they were not retaining Senegalese defender Pascal Mendy.