BOV Premier League | Santa Lucia 2 – Gzira United 1

Gzira United were coming from a fine win over Hamrun Spartans. They strengthened their squad further this month in order to try to overcome Floriana. The Maroons needed a win in order to climb just three points behind Floriana once again.

On the other hand, Santa Lucia are fighting to avoid relegation. Oliver Spiteri’s side struggled to win points recently; however, they were coming from a positive result against Valletta.

Santa Lucia broke the deadlock after 14 minutes. Rei Tachikawa ran inside the penalty area and fired a shot that sailed past Justin Haber.

The score became 2-0 on the 39th minute. Tachikawa’s shot was blocked by Gzira’s defence. The Japanese took the rebound and smashed the ball inside the net.

Santa Lucia suffered a setback as they were reduced to ten men on the hour mark. Luis Carlos Riascos Torres was sent off after being shown his second yellow card.

Gzira increased their pressure and pulled one back on the 80th minute. Zachary Scerri fired a powerful shot from distance that gave Timothy Aquilina no chance.

Following this result, Floriana are four points clear ahead of Hibernians who sit second in the table.

On the other end of the table, Santa Lucia are on level points with Sliema. The Wanderers will be in action tomorrow against Valletta.

Santa Lucia starting line-up: Timothy Aquilina, Gabriel Bohrer Mentz, Kevin Correira Pinheiro, Adam Magri Overend, Diego Luis Mosquera Segura (63′ Neil Micallef), Kevin Ante Rosero (89′ Lee Galea), Luis Carlos Riascos Torres, Jacob Walker (85′ Omar Elouni), Farid Zuniga, Jamie Zerafa, Rei Tachikawa

Gzira United starting line-up: Justin Haber, Fernando Barbosa, Gianmarco Conti, Zachary Scerri, Rodolfo Soares (65′ Nicholas Muscat), Juan Carlos Corbalan, Hamed Kone, Sacha Borg, Marco Criaco (46′ Ryan Darmanin), Martin Davis (55′ Andrew Cohen), Wilfried Domoraud

Referee: Mario Apap

Assistant Referees: Alan Camilleri, Thomas Debono

Fourth Official: Slobodan Petrovic

BOV Player of the Match: Rei Tachikawa (Santa Lucia)