Floriana suffered their second successive defeat of the season going down to Gzira United in a rather boring match. This defeat, which follows that against the champions Hamrun Spartans, leaves the Greens in second place at the end of the first round, three points behind the Spartans.

If the defeat against Hamrun was considered an unlucky one, yesterday’s defeat came after a very disappointing performance by the team lead by Camoranesi. This defeat can prove costly for Floriana as they now have to chase their opponents and cannot make any mistakes. Their next opponents at the start of the second round are Santa Lucia, who yesterday stunned Bikirkara with a surprise win.

For the Maroons this deserved win could be the start of a new phase in their rather stuttering form so far. Gzira had a turbulent week with coach Darren Abdilla leaving the side, and with his assistant Andrew Cohen taking over as interim coach.

After only two minutes a Noguereira effort was saved by Zarkov and some minutes later Zarkov was again called in action to block a Veselji shot. On 19 minutes Gzira’s first attempt with a Thiago Espindola freekick saved by Kitanov.

On 33 minutes Nogureira missed a sitter for the Greens and on the other end a Macula shot just missed the target. Two minutes from the break Gzira scored what proved to be the winner when ex Hibernians Thaylor Aldama lobed nicely past Kitanov.

Much more was expected from the Greens on the resumption but they lacked ideas and the Gzira defence was a solid one and was never under threat. On the hour Espidola had another freekick going inches wide.

The inclusion of Nwoko did not help much as the Greens continued to attack but they never gave the impression they could save the game.