Champions Floriana had to settle for a draw yesterday against Balzan in a drab affair. With this point Floriana moved above rivals Valletta in the standings, but the Greens lost a golden opportunity to move closer to leaders Hibernians and Gzira.
Floriana are now four points away from the leaders but have a game in hand. On the other hand Balzan remain in tenth place as they now stretched their winless streak to four matches.
Floriana held the initiaitive for long stretches but they were rarely effective in front of goal, with striker Keqi a pale shadow of last season’s scorer. Venancio had another good game for the champions and was also voted as player of the game, but his distribution and guidance failed to ignite the rest of the team which struggled a well organised Balzan side.
Mark Miller’s side defended for long phases of the game but the side was never under siege as they held theri opponents well especially in midfield. Floriana had nothing to show at the end of the first half as they failed to create scoring opportunities.
Ironically Balzan were the most dangerous in the first half when Uros Ljubomirac served Stefan Dimic, whose shot was well saved by Akpan.
The second half continued on the same wavelength with Florianaon the offensive and holdineg territorial superiority but Vranes was always on the alert. Floriana almost grabbed a dramatic winer on 90 minutes when Ulisses Arias’ shot hit he upright with Vranes beaten, as Balzan had a lucky escape.
But the result was fair as no one deserved the field empty handed.
Photo: Domenic Aquilina
