Sliema and San Ġiljan open Challenger Cup commitments with emphatic wins

Sliema ASC and San Ġiljan kicked off their commitments in the European Aquatics Challenger Cup in some style after recording commanding victories in their respective opening matches at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

Drawn in the same Group A, the two Maltese sides produced a show of force that underlines their ambitions of qualifying for the next round of the competition.

Sliema ASC, who reached the semi-finals of last year’s Challenger Cup, kicked off their campaign when they beat Israeli side Hapoel Palram Zvulun 18-13.

The  Blues were in control for the majority of the match and quickly raced into a commanding 5-2 lead by the end of the first session. Dino Zammit helped himself to a hat-trick, with the other goals coming from Benjamin Cachia and Liam Galea.

In the second session, the Israeli side fought back as they won the quarter 5-3 but they still trailed 8-7 when ends were changed.

Sliema’s scorers in this session were scored by Liam Galea, and a brace from Sam Engerer.

But Sliema resumed normal service in the third session, as they outlasted their opponents by six goals to four and opened a 14-11 lead.

Dino Zammit struck a hat-trick while Liam Galea bagged a brace, with the other goal coming from Elijah Schembri.

In the final session, Sliema did well to administer their advantage and they quickly put the game beyond their opponents’ reach following goals by Sam Engerer and Jayden Cassar before Julian Chircop and Jake Cachia put the seal to the match with two late goals.

San Ġiljan proved too strong for the Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia as they cruised to a dominant 26-10 win.

The Saints put the game to bed inside the first two sessions as they raced into a 14-5 lead and there was no way back for APOEL.

The final two sessions were purely academic as they kept piling the goals, netting 12 goals to seal a very comfortable win.

Marko Vavic and Nikolai Zammit helped themselves to five goals apiece with Matthew Zammit bagging a poker of goals.

The other scorers for San Ġiljan were Dean Bugeja, Russell Caruana (2), Gabriel Bonavia, Ben Plumpton, Jeremy Abela (2), Darren Zammit, Nico Schiavone (2) and Luigi Dimech (2).

The preliminary round group resumes on Saturday when Sliema and San Ġiljan will  battle for top spot when they face off in the day’s main fixture at 7.30pm.