Marsaxlokk through on penalties
Marsaxlokk staged an upset in yester‐ day's first semi final of the FA Trophy when they eliminated Gzira United after a penalty shoot out with the score locked at 1‐1 after 120 minutes.
Jefferson De Assis, Gzira's top scorer this season made a fatal mistake from the penalty spot for the only mistake of the penalty shoot out.
Gzira had the better start and domi‐ nated the first minutes of the game taking an early lead, but then Marsaxlokk came back in the game and shared the exchanges after ob‐ taining the equaliser to force the match to penalties.
Gzira dominated the early stages of the game taking their opponents by storm and after a couple of minutes went close with a Riascos effort just missing the base of the upright.
Not surprisingly Gzira took the lead on 15 minutes when from a Scerri cross from the right, Jefferson De Assis nipped in between two Marsaxlokk defenders to head home.
Minutes later Gzira should have al‐ most sealed the match with a slick move that put captain Steve Pisani all alone in front of goal, but the Marsaxlokk custodian made a great save to turn into a corner.
This was a sort of wake up call for Marsaxlokk who started to play bet‐ ter, sharing the exchanges with their opponents.
On 21 minutes an Aguirre cross shot almost surprised the Gzira custodian. Sixty seconds later at the other end Drobnjak saved Marsaxlokk from fur‐ ther damage turning into a corner a low shot from Jefferson De Assis.
On 26 minutes a Ferraris long range shot was partially saved by Zarkov and from the rebound Fonseca was pushed off the ball by Cosic with ref‐ eree Spiteri awarding the penalty.
From the penalty spot Aguirre made no mistake with a precise shot to level matters.
After this goal the Maroons lost their confidence as Marsaxlokk’s pressing left its toll on the Gzira de‐ fenders and midfielders with the Ma‐ roons failing to be dangerous in front of Drobnjak.
The game was less intense on the re‐ sumption with Marsaxlokk never giv‐ ing away an inch.
Goal scoring chances were rare and the game went to extra time.
The extra thirty minutes did not pro‐ duce much and the match went to penalties to determine the first final‐ ist of this year's FA Trophy.
Bohrer, Mendoza, Cosic and Makula scored Gzira's first four penalties, with Aguirre, Keqi, Farraris, and Cruz answering for Marsaxlokk.
Jefferson De Assis took the fifth penalty but his central shot was blocked by Drobnjak and Terence Vella made no mistake to send Marsaxlokk to the final.
| Wednesday 26 April 2023*
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