Senglea A. 0
Sliema W. 2
Senglea A.: Matthew Farrugia (46′ Philip Schranz), Brandon Muscat, Leighton Grech, Braian Volpini (55′ Manuel Guillari), Imanol Gonzalez, Zachary Cassar, Matias Nicolas Garcia, Augusto Rene Caseres (77′ Dylan Micallef), Karl Cutajar, Larson Mallia, Andre White
Sliema W.: Jake Galea, Matias Muchardi, Jonathan Pearson (52′ Stefan Cassar), Jefferson de Assis, Ryan Fenech, Nii Nortey Ashong, Michele Sansone, Kilian Amehi, Claudio Pani (35′ Kurt Shaw), Stefano Bianciardi, Younes Marzouk
Referee: Emanuel Grech
Asst refs: Duncan Sultana, Mitchell Scerri
4th official: Sandro Spiteri
Scorers: Jonathan Pearson 39’, Younes Marzouk 50’
Yellow cards: B. Muscat, I. Gonzalez, L. Grech
Player of the match: Younes Marzouk ( Sliema W.)
TMI Top 3: 1. Y. Marzouk 2. K. Amehi 3. A. Caseres
Sliema registered their second consecutive win when they defeated basement side Senglea by two goals to nil. A win which put the Wanderers in joint third place with Valletta though the latter with a game in hand.
Sliema have had a rather inconsistent campaign with ups and downs along the way. In fact in their last outing they defeated Qormi but following back-to-back defeats at the expense of Hibernians and Birkirkara. This was a must win match since both Hamrun and Balzan had joined them on 19 points. And moreover to keep up the pressure on the top three.
On the other hand it looks like the writing is on the wall for Senglea. This was their ninth defeat from eleven matches played so far. For this match the Cottonera outfit missed captain Ferdinando Salvati through suspension. Though lately they have showed some progress, the points have eluded them and are still placed at the rock bottom position.
Sliema were the best and dominated for long stretches especially in the first half but slowed down in the second forty five minutes controlling with ease. They built a series of attacks only to be erratic on several occassions or unlucky not to win with a more comfortable scoreline. Senglea failed once again to live up to expectations and after conceeding six minutes from the end of the first half they threw in the towel. A reaction was never on their agenda with Sliema dominating the rest of the match.
The Wanderers were first to venture forward and on 21 minutes off a corner by Amehi from the left a Younes Marzouk headed effort just missed out. Three minutes later Senglea responded when a Rene Augusto Caseres shot was deflected into a corner.
Six minutes from the end of the first half Sliema took the lead. It was a corner taken by Amehi with Jonathan Pearson finding the comfort of being unmarked and easily heading the Wanderers into the lead.
On resumption Sliema sealed the issue five minutes into the second half when a Younes Marzouk shot from the edge of the area beat Philip Schranz. The latter had come in for the second half instead of captain Matthew Farrugia.
With Sliema going near to scoring their third in the 79th minute only for Ryan Fenech’s conclusion to just miss the target following a Muchardi pass.
Till the end Sliema were in total control and thus cruised to another victory which put them in third place at least until Valletta played their match against St. Andrew’s.