Hibernians stroll past Qala Saints to reach FA Trophy quarter-finals

QALA SAINTS 0

HIBERNIANS   3

Villela 5 pen., 40

Bruno 49

QALA SAINTS
O. Attard, N. Inguanez, P. Rapa (55 C. Mercieca), K. Farrugia (46 J. Buttigieg), E. Ruiz (55 I. Nedeljkovic), E. Buttigieg (76 S. Curmi), J. Parnis, G. Cardona (76 S. Bajada), N. Njoku, E. Grozdanov, L. De Almeida.

HIBERNIANS

P. Sanchez, A. Silas (59 L. Caruana), L. Villela (79 T. Eviparker), K. Fraga (59 K. Shaw), J. Degabriele (65 S. Sorokin), B. Kristensen, D. Xuereb, R. Ribeiro, A. Bruno, A. Martinis (65 I. Chukunyere), P. Henrique.

Referee: Trustin Farrugia Cann.

Yellow cards: Farrugia, Ruiz, Kristensen, Villela, Caruana.

Hibernians motored their way into the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy as they eased past Qala Saints at the Gozo Stadium.

Two goals from Lucas Villela inside the first 45 minutes put the Paolites on their way before Alex Bruno added a third to seal a very comfortable passage for Branko Nisevic’s side into the quarter-finals of the competition.

Hibernians could not have hoped for a better start as they took just five minutes to forge ahead after they were awarded a penalty.

From the spot, Alex Bruno’s shot was kept out by goalkeeper Owen Attard but in came Lucas Villela who fired home from the rebound.

Hibernians were firmly in control and on 19 minutes, Attard was alert to push away Jurgen Degabriele’s inswinger from a free-kick and Villela fired over from the rebound.

As the minutes passed, Qala started to grow in stature and their fast transitions were creating some problems to the Hibernians defence.

On 23 minutes, in quick counter attack, Gabriel Cardona hit a curling drive that was brilliantly pushed away by Hibs goalkeeper Pablo Sanchez.

Four minutes later, Qala again caught the Hibs defence with another fast transition and once more Cardona brought the best out of goalkeeper Sanchez.

Hibernians quickly regained their composure and five minutes from time they doubled their lead.
Degabriele sent a teasing cross towards Villela who had time and space to head the ball past Attard.

The Paolites kept their foot on the accelerator and on 49 minutes they made it 3-0.

Degabriele’s cross found Bjorn Kristensen who saw his thumping drive pushed away by Attard but from the rebound Alex Bruno fired home.

Kristensen came again close to put his name on the scoresheet on the hour mark but fired just wide after another Degabriele delivery.

That turned out to be Degabriele’s final contribution as he was replaced by Ukrainian debutant Stanislav Sorokin.

Qala had a good chance to pull a goal back on 72 minutes when the Paolites defence failed to deal with a corner but goalkeeper Sanchez was alert to block Nicholas Inguanez as he was about to shoot home.