Steve Borg early header opens title race
A Steve Borg powerful header in the fourth minute proved to be enough for league champions Valletta to inflict the second defeat of the season on their neighbours and historical rivals Floriana.
The result opens the title race wide open, with the champions back in the reckoning. For Floriana it was a disappointing result apart from the derby loss, as they now see their handsome lead at the top fizzling out.
The match unfortunately failed to live up to its expectations as it had very little to offer: both sides can surely offer much better. Valletta took the early lead and then controlled the match with Floriana never really testing goalkeeper Bonello who was returning for the Citizens.
Valletta could’nt have had a better start as they took the lead on four minutes when Triston Caruana floated a precise freekick towards the unmarked Steve Borg who headed powerfully home. Two minutes later Floriana came close when a Venancio freekick was headed by Muhamadou but Henry Bonello made a great save.
On 24 minutes panic in the City rearguard with Garcia’s shot luckily blocked by a Valletta defender. Two minutes past the half hour a Fontanella header was well saved by Akpan. For the rest of the first half the match had little or nothing to offer with Valletta controlling the match with relative ease.
Both sides were very erratic at this stage with the match losing much of the initial flair.
The second half started with D’Agostino testing Bonello and with a Kaljevic drive well off target. But like the case of the first half after this promising start the match faded out with goalmouth actions nowhere to be seen.
On 75 minutes an Alba freekick was met by Piciollo but his shot went over the bar. There was some drama in the final moments of the match with Floriana moving everything forward and with Akanji caught up front, Valletta had a golden opportunity but Fontanella and Malano missed the golden opportunity.
On 94 minutes Henry Bonello secured the precious victory for his side saving a Venancio freekick.