Sliema Wanderers produced a splendid performance at the Gozo Stadium to beat Birkirkara with a Simon Zibo brace and gain a place in the Top Six of the Closing Round.
It will be a very tight Top Six with the teams in the space of two points.
With only today's match be‐ tween Naxxar and Hamrun to be played, four teams, Birkirkara, Floriana, Mosta and Marsaxlokk are on top with 19 points, fol‐ lowed bySliema with 18 and Hi‐ bernians with 17 points.
The Paolites till have the sixth seat but if the champions man‐ age to beat Naxxar this after‐ noon, the Spartans will earn their place with Hibernians downgraded to the bottom six.
Aparta from scoring the two goals, Zibo was all over the place and gave an outstanding per‐ formance. The Blues had the edge on the flanks with Magri Overend and Beerman playing a blinder. Steve Pisani was also outstanding, delivering both as‐ sists in Zibo's breath taking goals.
What about the Stripes ? They were outclassed especially in the first half. With Satariano rele‐ gated to a left back position the Stripes lost all their flair and striking power. To make it worse Paixao never put a foot right and there was considerable improve‐ ment on the resumption when he was replaced by Yikpe.
The match failed to lift up and the first 20 minutes were a com‐ plete bore, but the Blues always showed the better ideas. Then on 22 minutes Zibo received from Pisani and unleashed a scorcher from well outside the area with ball rocketing past Grech.
The Stripes were now under shock, and their reaction a poor one with efforts from Maia and Coppola well over the bar. Eight minutes from the break another good opportunity for Sliema with Wesley firing wide when well placed.
On the resumption the Stripes looked a better outfit with Yikpe causing a lot of damage to the Sliema rearguard. However Jean Borg almost doubled the score on 51 minutes but he completely misfired from an ideal position.
Birkirkara were now finding space on the flanks with headers from Maia and Gaitan going wide. On 61 minutes Birkirkara drew level.
It was a gem of a goal scored by Paul Mbong with a great sols ef‐ fort and a beauty from the edge of the area with the ball in the top corner.
The match was now an open contest and in probably Birkirkara's best patch, Sliema scored what proved to be the winner. Another great goal, again with Steve Pisani doing the dirty work and with Zibo's deadly strike for a goal worthy of victory.
This second blow was too much for the Stripes who failed to re‐ cover even if they generously but confusingly pushed forward. In stoppage time Zibo almost notched his hat trick but Grech pulled one last save to deny him.
Photo: Domenic Aquilina