Listen: Gaucci has big plans for Floriana

Not ready to experience another year of continuous personal attacks

Floriana president Riccardo Gaucci has heaped praise on his players as the Greens threw a spanner in Valletta’s bid to successfully retain their Premier League title with a 2-0 victory at the National Stadium.

After Hibernians were held by Mosta on Saturday afternoon, the Malta champions had the chance to take a significant step towards retaining the league crown for a second successive season with victory over their fierce rivals that would have given them a commanding four-point lead at the top of the standings with only four matches to go.

But Floriana had other plans.

Goals in each half from Brandon Paiber and Kristian Keqi handed them a precious victory as with the three points collected on Sunday they have all but assured themselves of moving away from a relegation scrap.

In fact, they have moved on the 28-point mark that gives them mathematical certainty of avoiding the bottom two places in the category.

On the other hand, Valletta remain top of the standings, just one point clear of Hibernians, five ahead of Gżira United who they face on Sunday.

In the second part of the Episode 4 of our podcast we focus on Maltese cricket.

The Malta Cricket Association have recently completed a major coup when appointing top Indian coach Rajkumar Sharma as the new national coach.

Sharma is the man who discovered Indian top-class batsman Virat Kohli, as their new national team coach for this week’s international T20 tournament in Spain.

The Times of Malta Sports Desk spoke with Sharma on his new challenge in charge of the national team.

Moreover, in this audio Sharma talks about:

What is your objective as Malta national coach?: “I would love to work with the grassroots and help the young cricketers develop their talent so that Malta can have a proper team in the future.” 

What did Virat Kohli had so special as a young cricketer?: “After 20 days I could see that he had tremendous energy for his age and was fearless and had a lot of self-belief on his ability.”

How do you see India’s chances in this year’s World Cup in England?: “It’s a big challenge for Virat Kohli to lead India in the World Cup where England and Australia will be favourites.”