Watch: Clinical Naxxar Lions pile more misery on Birkirkara

NAXXAR LIONS             2

Farias 54; Marcilio 85

BIRKIRKARA    0

Birkirkara’s troubles in this season’s Premier League continued on Sunday when last year’s FA Trophy winners slumped to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of newly-promoted Naxxar Lions at the National Stadium.

Edson Farias was the star performer for the Lions as the Brazilian midfielder put his team ahead with a stunning opener before setting up the second goal scored by Marcilio to complete another fine victory for the northerners.

With this win, the Lions have now moved to fifth place in the standings on 12 points while on the other hand slipped to tenth place in the standings on 10 points after suffering their fourth defeat of the campaign.

Birkirkara had started brightly and inside the first 45 minutes they came close with a Simon Zibo shot that finished just over.

On 34 minutes, the Stripes should have taken the lead when the unmarked Satariano fired the ball onto the upright from inside the area.

On the restart, Giovanni Tedesco, the Birkirkara coach, brought on Maxuell Maia and Andrei Ciolacu in a bid to bolster the forward line.

However, it was Naxxar who drew first blood when on 57 minutes Edson Faria showed great skill to move past his marker and hit a thumping drive that gave no chance to the Birkirkara goalkeeper.

Twenty minutes from time, Naxxar goalkeeper Mathias Debono came to his team’s rescue when he dived full stretch to push away Maia’s effort that looked destined to hit the net.

Naxxar sealed the points five minutes from time when Farias fed Marcilio fired the ball into the net to the delight of the Lions fans.

NAXXAR LIONS M. Debono Matthias, N. Micallef (46 T. Yamaguchi), F. Barbosa, N. Pace Cocks, P. Augusto, E. Farias, R. Cassar, Elizeu (90 R. Mercieca), Marcilio (87 D. Falzon), Maicon, J. Vitor.

BIRKIRKARA M. Zapytowski, D. Mariani, J. Pajovic, Adailton (54 M. Maia), Y. Yankam (54 A. Ciolacu), P. Mbong (86 M. De Filippis), K. Zammit, A. Satariano, E. Pena Beltre (75 M. Durisic), N. Micallef (75 N. Agius), S. Zibo.

Referee: Malcolm Spiteri.

Yellow cards: Zibo, Barbosa, Micallef.

OTHER RESULT

VALLETTA 1
Falcone 71

STA LUCIA 1
Ellul 90

VALLETTA J. Galea, E. Ruiz (90 J. Azzopardi), S. Ferraris (90 D. Nogueira), S. Dimech (62 B. Paiber), C. Gauci, F. Falcone, V. Prestes Filho, F. Vega, N. Micallef, A. Silas, D. Garba (46 J. Benites).
STA LUCIA F. Filho, M. Ellul, M. Vella, S. Pisani (62 Hulk), T. Nagamatsu (76 W. Pereira), A. Bradshaw, J. Pisani, J. Tanti (68 J. Carbone), A. Piazza (76 L. Silva), P. Ramos, E. Gomes.

Referee Slobodan Petrovic.

Yellow cards Ferraris, Nagamatsu, Tanti, Filho, Presets Filho, Falcone.