Gzira United suffered their second defeat of the campaign when against all odds they lost against Balzan.

This defeat meant that the Maroons are now in third place since Hibernians have jumped into second place after their win against Sirens. One change by coach Darren Abdilla from their last match against Birkirkara, with Steve Pisani starting instead of Nikolai Muscat.

For Balzan this was a most welcome win, their first in over two months and have now climbed into seventh place. Their coach Oliver Spiteri made two changes from their last match, drafting in Braunovic and Andrejinc in place of Jalu and Momcilo.

It was Gzira who held the initiative in the early stages of the match. But against the run of play Balzan scored what proved to be the winner on the half hour mark. An Andrejic free-kick was perfectly met by Zlatkovic who volleyed past a helpless Zarkov.

Three minutes later an Alex Satariano shot was saved by Zarkov. And on 43 minutes another chance for Balzan when a Duvan Torres long range shot from inside his half nearly found the net.

On resumption Gzira went near to making matters equal when a Gabriel Mentz free-kick was blocked by Debono.

Gzira were now piling on the pressure on the opposing goal and Maxuell went near but his shot ended wide.

Balzan came into the picture fifteen minutes from the end when Matheus was unlucky in seeing his shot hit the post. And in the 78th minute Angel Torres set Andrejic who rifled at goal but an alert Zarkov stopped  his shot.

Nearing the end of the match Gzira nearly saved the result but shots by Muscat and Tabone went just wide.

Photo: Domenic Aquilina