Gżira United coach Andrew Cohen praised his team’s work ethic and determination as the Maroons sent a clear signal of intent in this season’s 360 Sports Malta Premier when they upset title challengers Marsaxlokk 1-0 at the Tony Bezzina Stadium on Sunday.
After last season’s struggles in the Maltese top-flight, which saw Gżira United only managing to avoid the drop on the final day of the season, few had expected the team guided by Cohen to put on such a dominant display against Marsaxlokk.
The Southerners strengthened their ranks during the close season and put on an encouraging display against Albanian giants FK Partizani in the UEFA Conference League.
But on Sunday, the Maroons caught the eye with an energetic display that saw the team pressing high their opponents, giving them little time to settle down.
In the end, it was Alex Alves that netted the all-important goal for Gżira United and earn them a much-deserved victory.
Speaking to the Times of Malta, Cohen heaped praise on his team’s performance and said that their goal on Sunday was to stop Marsaxlokk’s forwards from making an impact on the game.
“I analysed Marsaxlokk’s style of play during their matches in the UEFA Conference League and the Summer Cup and it was clear that they boast of highly-technical players who if they are given the chance to play with ball in close spaces they posed a major danger to us,” Cohen said.
“Our game plan was clear from the outset – not to let the ball arrive to their feet – and to achieve that we played a high-pressing game, giving them little time to settle down. The players followed the plan to perfection as we managed to annul the threat of players like Yuri Messias who never had a sniff at goal during the match.
“It’s not easy to play the whole 90 minutes on a high tempo and continuously pressing our opponents.
“But luckily this season we have a bigger squad and I had the opportunity to replace those players who were tiring out.
“To be honest, I never thought that we would be so superior to Marsaxlokk and in fact they never were dangerous to our goal.
Instead, we were always on the front foot and created several chances but were denied by their goalkeeper who ended up being named as the best player of the match.”
Cohen said that every player in the team deserves praise for his performance but singled out the efforts of young Maltese players such as Brooklyn Borg who starred for his team.
“Here at Gżira United we are blessed to have some young talented players who are slowly establishing ourselves in our team,” Cohen said.
“Players like Brooklyn Borg and Andy Borg are growing into proper players. Today, Brooklyn had an exceptional performance.
“His work rate and the passion he puts into the game is unmatched. Since I took charge of the team, he featured regularly for us and has become a very important member of the team.
“This season, I decided to deploy him as a midfielder and he is thriving in that position.
“He has an excellent transition with the ball and he has so much qualities that I can deploy him in more than one position.
“Brooklyn is still very young at 20 years old and I am sure that he still has a huge margin of improvement. If he keeps working hard I am sure that he will become some player for Gżira United and the national team.”
Next up for Gżira United is another difficult tie when they face Hibernians next weekend and he said that his players need to be more clinical if they are to keep winning matches.
“Our biggest flaw against Marsaxlokk is that we failed to convert the chances we created,” Cohen said.
“We created so many chances but we simply could not put the ball into the net. Luckily, we scored through Alex Alves late on but we should have been ahead much before.
“If we want to win a lot of matches we need to be more clinical.”
Turning his sights on the season, Cohen admitted that Gżira’s main goal is to try and challenge for a place in Europe.
“We are not looking too far away at the moment, and we are taking it one game at a time,” Cohen said.
“But in terms of objective, we surely want to do much better than last season and we want to be among the challengers for a place in Europe.
“I am sure that this win over Marsaxlokk has instilled a lot of belief in the players that we can play against all the teams.
“The players need to believe in their ability and I am sure that there is more to come from our team this season.”
