Gudja United suffered their first defeat of the season as they went down against a spir‐ ited Marsaxlokk side by the odd goal in three, with all goals scored in the second half.

It was a very tense match with very nasty tackles and the ref‐ eree had a very difficult time to keep the match under control. It was a balanced match but Marsaxlokk held the upper‐ hand for long stetches and in the end deserved their victory.

Gudja however staged a very good reaction after suffering the second goal and could have even saved the match but there was not much time left.

Marsaxlokk immediately made their intentions clear with Gudja goalkeeper making two stunning saves in the open‐ ing three minutes off shots from Fonseca and Serrano.

On 16 minutes Gudja had a very fast break with Navarrete all alone in front of goal but his grounder was well blocked by Marko.

On 26 minutes a Ferraris bombshell from a freekick was well blocked by Zammit.

Eleven minutes into the sec‐ ond half Marsaxlokk took the lead when Keqi was brought down inside the penalty area by Romero and from the penalty spot Aguiire sent Zam‐ mit the wrong way.

A minute later Arthur tried his luck with an effort from the edge of the area but Marko was again on the alert to block.

On 71 minutes Marsaxlokk doubled the score when from a Vukovic corner, Keqi was rather unmarked on the far post and headed home to put Marsaxlokk in the driving seat.

Five minutes later Gudja were back in business when substi‐ tute Selemani beat the offside trap to score with a low shot. Sixty seconds later Plut almost drew level but his effort was brilliantly saved by Marko.

Gudja pushed everything for‐ ward in the remaining minutes but the Marsaxlokk defence withstood the pressure to gain a precious win.

Photo: Jonathan Bugeja