The Malta Independent on Sunday
Balzan brush aside Stripes to keep up title chase
Football - BOV Premier League
after producing an insipid performance. Despite a second-half improvement, they ended up convincing losers.
Both teams went into this match in some vein of good form. The leaders were on a 19match unbeaten streak since November while Birkirkara were unbeaten in the previous ten matches, having won nine of them.
The Stripes had conceded only two goals in 11 matches. Balzan were only breached once in the last five outings.
Balzan were bereft of the attacking prowess of their suspended forward Bojan Kaljevic. Alez Alves played in the centre instead.
Birkirkara also started with Jake Grech named among the substitutes, with Edward Herrera handed a rare start.
Balzan showed a hearty appetite for the fight. They pressed Birkirkara urgently and were the more threatening team throughout, with Effiong, Alves and Mendes irrepressible, as Paul Fenech and Lepovic never stopped running.
Birkirkara’s response was torpor, enabling Balzan to tear into them. The Stripes were stretched defensively.
The leaders made repeated inroads up the channels and Birkirkara looked powerless to stop them, even on relatively simple and direct balls.
In the opening 45 minutes, Balzan had punished them with an opening goal and there could have been more before halftime.
They put the match beyond Birkirkara with two more goals in the econd half and were left to amuse themselves in the face of such supine opponents.
Balzan eased ahead after barely ten minutes, with Milos Lepovic capitalising on the Stripes’ static backline, as he ran in for Mendes’ whipping cross from the left to hit the ball past keeper Naumowski.
The Birkirkara shot stopper was influential seven minutes later as he rushed off his line to thwart Effiong, who had been put clear by Bozovic.
Midway through the half, Birkirkara were lucky to escape unscathed as Mendes thumped his free kick against the bar with the goalkeeper turning the ball into a corner.
Naumowski escaped with only a caution in a controversial episode short of the half hour. He rushed out of his area and felled Effiong, who was going clear slightly on the right of the Birkirkara area, with a lunging tackle.
Balzan threatened again on 39 minutes after the goalkeeper dropped the ball from a Mendes corner but Effiong’s effort on the loose ball was blocked.
Balzan scored their second three minutes after the interval. Ljubomirac played a ball forward for Effiong to run through inside the Birkirkara area from the left and, as the flag stayed down, he sent a low cross towards the middle, ably met by Carlos Mendes to tap in at the far post.
Balzan grew in confidence. On 55 minutes Ljubomirac’s cross from the right found Alves unmarked in the middle. The Balzan forward was denied by Naumowski’s timely block.
Balzan could not entirely relax with a 2-0 lead.
Birkirkara sought a riposte and introduced Jake Grech for the ineffective Dimitrov.
On 65 minutes, on Zammit’s cross from the left, Rolovic’s firm header was ably saved by keeper Janjusevic into a corner.
But Balzan kept going and, not surprisingly, scored their third on 74 minutes. Grioli’s centre from the right cut the Birkirkara rearguard with alarming ease and Alfred Effiong stretched his leg to steer the ball past the goalkeeper.
Looking totally dry of inspiration, Birkirkara still managed to pull one back with three minutes remaining, Ryan Scicluna finishing off Grech’s cross.
But that was too little too late.