Birkirkara 0

Valletta 1

Valletta overcame Birkirkara’s challenge with a goal in each half to retain their six-point lead over Hibernians and with three more matches remaining, the Citizens keep showing the consistency of champions.

It was Valletta’s afternoon – as most of them tend to be these days.

Their game outpowered Birkirkara for most part yesterday, with their intelligent mixture of long and short passes. The leaders were sharper, faster and streets ahead in terms of ideas and the ability to implement them.

The volatile Michael Mifsud produced one of his best performances of late, besides scoring the opening goal, as Birkirkara’s players struggled against the pace and power of Denni and Zongo.

Trailing by two goals already, Birkirkara’s attempts to fight back were hampered by the dismissal of defender Rodrigo Pereira in the last quarter hour as they now remain in fourth place, one point adrift of Floriana.

Birkirkara stayed composed, defending with their customary diligence to keep out the bursting runs of Denni, Zongo and Mifsud. Gareth Sciberras and Rowen Muscat played in front of the defence, with both wide players, Ryan Scicluna and Ryan Camenzuli, retreating deep when Valletta had the possession.

But their hard-pressed defence struggled in vain to contain the myriad talents of the opposition. Valletta had already gone close with a Briffa powerful drive, deflected into a corner after 11 minutes.

On the quarter hour, the champions crafted their first real threat down the left flank. Zongo played the ball towards Michael Mifsud who slotted it beneath the onrushing keeper Gauci to give his side the lead.

Birkirkara had to go out of their defensive shell after that goal, but Valletta allowed them little comfort on the ball. On 21 minutes, Camenzuli advanced dangerously down the left flank and his sailing cross went over the Valletta goal.

Valletta kept enjoying more of the possession but were often stifled on the edge of the Birkirkara area, with scoring chances remaining at a premium.

Birkirkara tried to venture more forward into enemy territory after the restart, also putting in Shola Shodiya for Camenzuli.

Keeper Hogg held out Zerafa’s shot from a distance on 49 minutes and on 58 minutes Buhagiar’s shot from the edge of the Valletta area rebounded off several legs but finished narrowly off the post.

Twice, Valletta were held by Birkirkara’s offside trap but the second goal was in the air. That came on the hour. Mifsud played the ball in the path of Oussain Zongo who sprayed down the left flank with a force that finally seemed undeniable to beat the onrushing keeper with a low drive.

With a firm grip on the proceedings, Valletta continued to stroke the ball around with minimal difficulty, with Birkirkara remaining mostly bystanders.

On 67 minutes, the Birkirkara keeper rushed out to smother the danger before Mifsud could reach for the ball.

Two minutes later, Birkirkara were down to ten men. Their central defender Pereira was red carded for retaliation on Briffa and the Stripes’ task became more laborious after that. Keeper Gauci reached for the ball before Mifsud and Denni on Zongo’s testing cross from the right and on 78 minutes Agius’ acrobatic effort missed the target.

Valletta effected all three substitutions in the late stages as keeper Hogg produced two saves in quick succession, turning headers by Vukanac and Moises into corners to preserve yet another clean sheet.

Birkirkara R. Gauci, R. Scicluna, N. Vukanac, J. Zerafa, R. Camenzuli (S. Shodiya), R. Pereira, R. Muscat, G. Sciberras, S. Bajada (M. Camilleri), A. Buhagiar (P. Fenech), A. Moises

Coach P. Zammit

Valletta A. Hogg, J. Caruana, S. Borg, S. Mady Panandetiguiri, I. Azzopardi, R. Briffa (R. Bajada), E. Agius, O. Zongo (A. Effiong), D. Dos Santos (G. Agius), W. Barbosa, M. Mifsud

Coach J. Zerafa

Referee K. Azzopardi

Asst. refs C. Francalanza, T. Debono

4th official A.M. Sant

Scorers M. Mifsud 15, O. Zongo 60

Yellow cards S. Bajada, R. Briffa

Red card R. Pereira

Player of the match Michael Mifsud (Valletta)

TMI top 3 1. M. Mifsud 2. W. Barbosa 3. J. Zerafa

Attendance 3,002