A late strike from substitute Kevin Tulimieri was enough for Birkirkara to grab the three points at stake against Balzan in low key match, which was surely conditioned by the strong winds at Ta’ Qali.

The result is rather harsh on Balzan to say the least. The side led by Oliver Spiteri played a very diligent match, sharing the exchanges for most of the match, even showing the better ideas in the second half.

Goal scoring opportunities were few on both sides and a draw would have been a fairer result, but Balzan finished the game with ten men and with no points to their credit.

Birkirkara took an early lead when a De Paixao Alves corner was completely misjudged by the Balzan custodian and from an al‐ most impossible angle Osvaldo Iorio managed to head home with Paul Fenech’s attempt to clear the ball off the goal line un‐ successful.

After this initial shock, Balzan slowly crawled in the game as they grew in composure but were not dangerous in front of goal, with the Birkirkara rear‐ guard controlling the proceed‐ ings.

On 39 minutes the Stripes went close when Attard passed to‐ wards Cabrera who rounded a defender and from an acute angle was denied by Debonon.

In the second minute of stop‐ page time Balzan drew level with a well‐executed move finished off by Mattheus who headed home from close range.

On the resumption Nava was well placed on the alert to save a Satariano shot.

The match dragged on with Balzan in full control and with the Stripes rarely venturing for‐ ward.

On 85 minutes substitute Tulimieri scored the winner when he grabbed a ball from the right, resisted some tackles be‐ fore beating Debono with a pre‐ cise grounder.

Minutes later Balzan tried a desperate comeback with Paul Fenech’s shot blocked by Nava.

Balzan were now exposed at the back and Yankam was floored by Arab just outside the area when he had an open goal scoring op‐ portunity. Arab was sent off as the Stripes home took the points that mattered.

Photo: Domenic Aquilina