Valletta and Birkirkara figured in a scorless draw in the open‐ ing match of the Premier League which promises to be a very intense one.

For Valletta this was a welcome return to the top flight after a season in the Challenge League, their first ever appear‐ ance in the lower division.

The result is a fair one with Valletta keeping the uper hand in the first hour of the match, even going close hitting the up‐ right, but then the Stripes rose to the occassion dominating the last half an hour, putting the pressure on the Citizens who appeared in difficulty in the final stages.

Yannick Yankam lost a good ball in the first minute and Kemar Reid tested the Valletta custodian with a grounder.

On 15 minutes a great oppor‐ tunity for Valletta with Ciolacu put through by Paiber, but the striker's effort went well over the bar.

Valletta continued to show the better football and in stoppage time Jackson Mendoza made a good run inside the area but his grounder just missed the target.

Seven minutes into the second half Valletta were unlucky when from a Yankam cross from the right, Brewer's first‐timer smashed against the upright. Minutes later a Paiber freekick was well saved by the Birkirkara goalkeeper Martinez.

From then onwards Birkirkara took the upper hand as Valletta seemed to be tiring out.

A Macula header just missed the base of the upright in Birkirkara's best chance of the second half.

Sunstitute Jan Busuttil in his debut with the Stirpes pro‐ voked several anxious moments in the Valletta defence, a Val‐ letta defence that was bril‐ liantly marshalled by veteran Steve Borg who at 37 was making a return with the Citizens.

In the other game, Sliema beat Zabbar 2-1.