Birkirkara climb to 2nd place after beating Tarxien

by Ayrton Galea - 20th February 2011

Birkirkara returned to winning ways as yesterday the opened their participation in the Championship Pool with a win over Tarxien Rainbows with a score of 3-1.

It was a very satisfying performance from 'The Stripes' which saw them being the best team on the field for the whole ninety minutes. If there was anybody who thought that things would change after Tarxien managed to equalise, they were was wrong as Birkirkara continued to dominate throughout.

Mr. Paul Zammit did not make major changes from last week's line-up for match against the same Tarxien Rainbows. The only change was that Nikola Vukanac replaced Angus Buhagiar who was ruled out injured for this game.

Birkirkara were the most aggressive side and after just ten minutes they took the lead when Michael Galea's powerful shot from outside the box gave the Rainbows' goalkeeper, David Cassar no chance.

Birkirkara continued to press forward. A flying header by the latest recruit, Ibrahim Babatunde, missed the target by mere centimetres.

However, unexpectedly Tarxien equalised on the 34th minute when they were awarded a very controversial penalty. Cristiano Dos Santos Rodrigues might have brought down by Patrick Borg, although this was contested by 'The Stripes'. From the resulting penalty, Sergio Pacheco De Oliviera made no mistake and equalised for Tarxien.

Birkirkara tried to regain the lead but Paul Fenech's shot was too weak and David Cassar neutralised easily.

The first half ended in a 1-1 draw, a score which was deemed unfair for Birkirkara after being the best team throughout.

It took only two minutes into the second half for Birkirkara to regain the lead when a perfect pass by Paul Fenech founds Emiliano Lattes. The latter advanced with the ball deep into Tarxien's defence before his powerful shot beat David Cassar.

Birkirkara continued to dominate Tarxien and on the 53rd minute a good header by Shaun Bajada was turned into a corner kick. From the same corner kick, Andrei Agius almost made them three as his first time effort hit the upright.

Just one minute later, it was David Cassar who saved in style Shaun Bajada's shot to deny Birkirkara another goal.

David Cassar was the protagonist once again when this time he denied Ibrahim Babatunde after the latter fired a powerful shot from inside the box.

However, on the 77th minute he could do nothing. After a text-book example of passing between Ibrahim Babatunde, Michael Galea and Shaun Bajada, the latter served Paul Fenech who made no mistake and from a diagonal angle he managed to beat David Cassar to give Birkirkara a more comfortable lead.

Three almost became four when Shaun Bajada served Emiliano Lattes and the latter's shot ended wide.

The full time whistle found the Birkirkara supporters applauding and cheering this convinvind performance.

Emiliano Lattes was deservedly voted as the BOV player of the match, for the sixth time this season.

Thanks to this win, Birkirkara are in 2nd place with seventeen points, two points ahead of Marsaxlokk who earlier on the day they managed to beat Floriana with a result of 4-0.

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