Birkirkara gained the first three poinst when in the first match of Season 2022/23 they beat Sirens by two goals to nil.
Both teams went through a number of changes during the summer. B’Kara after appointing Giovanni Tedesco as their new mentor, signed a number of foreign players. They welcomed within their ranks goalkeeper Giacomo Nava together with Alessandro Coppola, Enzo Cabrera, Osvaldo Iorio Forestero, Diego Pires Dall’Oca and Denis Ribeiro who are all newcomers to the Premier League. Adding to this they registered Alex da Paixao Alves and Kevin Tulimieri.
Pre-season was not that promising for the Stripes who failed to register a win from the five friendly matches that they played.
Their opponents Sirens also went through a number of changes though the man at the helm remained the same, Wintson Muscat. Apart from locals Matthew Grech , Andrea Cassar and Sean Cipriott they also registered a number of foreign players namely David Promise, Petinha Wellington, Kei Sano, Marcelo Muniz, Gabriel Ventura, Paulo Vyctor , Ivan Kolev and Weder Soares da Silva.
In the pre-season friendlies they had a mixture of results with three wins, two defeats and two draws.
After just five minutes off a Kurt Zammit cross a Federico Falcone headed effort was saved by goalkeeper Cassar.
Twenty minutes later the Stripes threatened again when Alex da Paixao supplied a cross but Cassar anticipated Falcone.
Birkirkara kept holding the upper hand and just past the half hour Da Paixao found Tulimieri but the latters shot hit a Sirens defender, the upright and ended into a corner.
Sirens ventured forward for the first time on 39 minuta when a Gary Camilleri cross was met by Kolev but his conclusion ended wide. And two minutes later Nava saved well on Bento De Vale.
On the change of ends Sirens could have took the lead but Tachikawa though well positioned fired wide off the mark.
It was the Stripes who drew first blood on the hour. A free kick by Coppola was partially saved by Cassar and there was Alex da Paixao Alves who slotted the ball into the net.
Eleven minutes from the end and an Enrico Pepe headed just missed the target.
B’Kara sealed the issue deep into stoppage time when Da Paixao set Denis Ribeiro who beat Cassar to bag the first three points for his team.
Photo: Domenic Aquilina
