SLIEMA 1 – 2 GUDJA

Gudja United resumed their impressive streak in the Premier League after halting Sliema Wanderers’ unbeaten run with a 2-1 victory.

Jesmond Zammit’s team had to roll their sleeves up to take the three points after, cancelling a one-goal deficit to bounce back from the Ħamrun Spartans defeat.

Thanks to this win, Gudja join Sliema, Gzira and Hibernians on the 10-point mark, two behind leaders Hamrun.

They opened the first 45 minutes brightly and they had their first chance of the game after four minutes, through an Aidan Friggieri shot which was blocked by Jake Galea.

Sliema coach Andrea Pisanu was forced to drop Gilmar after 12 minutes after suffering an injury, with Dutch midfielder Danny Holla replacing the Brazilian striker.

Friggieri threatened again with another shot, this time it sailed over the bar.

Gudja kept on attempting their luck from long-range, with Yuri Messias letting fly a shot from the edge of the area which went wide.

Pisanu was once again forced to make another substitution, this time after John Mintoff left the field injury with Dejan Vukovic taking his place.

Sliema started to inch their way up the field and had a good chance through Mark Scerri, but the latter squandered the opportunity.

Moments later, Scerri struck the crossbar but from the rebound, Juri Cisotti found Jean Paul Farrugia all alone in the box as the latter netted his fourth goal of the season to put Sliema one up.

On the brink of half-time, though, Gudja leveled terms when Oscar Bethancourt floored Augusto Caseres in the penalty box. Messias took charge of the set-piece and equalised for his side.

After the break, Gudja United remained the better team on the field and they almost found a second goal in the opening seconds through Messias just to see his volley go wide.

On the 49th minute, Messias missed a glorious chance when he went one on one with Jake but failed to hit the target.

Just a minute later, though, Gudja turned the score around when Messias profited from a Bethancourt mistake to force Galea into action who dropped the ball onto the feet of Friggieri. The U-21 international managed to cross the ball over the line before being cleared away to put his side ahead.

Sliema were struggling to stage a reaction to level terms, with Gudja’s compactness proving to be a crucial factor for them as they took three points home.

FORMATION:

Glenn Zammit, Imanol Gonzalez Benac, Goran Adamovic (46′ Jurgen Farrugia), Juan Bolanos, Neil Micallef, Llywelyn Cremona, Dale Camilleri, Augusto Caseres (70′ James Brincat), Aidan Friggieri (83′ Tensior Gusman), Gabriel Mensah, Yuri de Jesus Messias.
Subs not used: Jamie Azzopardi, Lee Pisani, Hubert Vella, Omar Rababah.

Coach: Jesmond Zammit

Referee: Matthew Degabriele
Assistant Referees: Jurgen Spiteri, Darko Stankovic
Fourth Official: Andrea Sciriha

Source: sportdesk.com.mt