Girls Under-16's beaten by Mgarr United
by Ayrton Galea - 17th March 2014
Birkirkara Girls Under-16's suffered another set-back to ending their league commitments in the third place, when on Sunday morning they were beaten by title hopefuls, Mgarr United with a score of 1-0.
The Stripes, coming from an encouraging match against Pembroke Athletha, gave a fine performance in the first half, but after Mgarr took the lead, the match changed in their favour and they managed to control Birkirkara's pressure.
The First Half
Birkirkara started brightly as they were quick to have their first attempt on goal. When the match was just two minutes old, Raina Giusti dribbled past her marker and had her low fine strike blocked by goalkeeper Rachelle Borg.
The Stripes were quick to threaten again a minute later. Giusti was involved in action once again when she played in Naomi Mizzi who had a first-time shot sailing over Borg's bar.
Birkirkara continued to produce the best ideas in the opening minutes, and on the fifth minute, tire-less midfielder Alishia Sultana had a low shot from outside the box ending wide after being served by Raina Giusti.
Raina Giusti was involved twice in action on the ninth minute. First she had a powerful free-kick ending over and just moments later, the same player had a fine strike ending wide.
Mgarr who suffered possession in the opening stages began to play better football and they threatened for the first time on the eleventh minute, when Thea Difesa had a shot from distance parried by goalkeeper Jennifer Galea.
On the other side of the pitch, the Stripes' were quick to reply, as two minutes later, Naomi Mizzi made some fine foot-work to dribble her marker inside the box, but her low shot was saved by goalkeeper Borg.
Alishia Sultana tried her luck with a long distance shot on the eighteenth minute, which ended wide off the far post.
When the match was heading to the half-time break, against the run of the play, Mgarr managed to score thanks to a brilliant shot by Analee Vella, which gave the Birkirkara goalkeeper no chance.
With Birkirkara left with no time to react, the end of the first half saw Mgarr leading by the odd goal.
The Second Half
One would have expected that the second twenty-five minutes would offer as many scoring opportunities as the first one, but with Mgarr leading by one, the match reduced drastically in its tempo and both goalkeepers were hardly tested.
Birkirkara's Coach, Johann Scicluna, made a double substitution on the half-hour mark, when forward Mariah Sciberras and defender Giulia Micallef were replaced by Mireille Bellizzi and Alexia Galea respectively.
Birkirkara were enjoying possession and Mgarr were defending deeply, but the Stripes were being erratic in their final pass and they hardly penetrated.
The Birkirkara Coach, sensing his team struggling, tried to spark his forward line as he included Sarah Urpani for Naomi Mizzi, on the thirty-sixth minute.
However, little changed, as despite Birkirkara enjoying most of the possession, they hardly threatened the Mgarr goalkeeper. In a rare scoring opportunity for the Stripes, Alishia Sultana made a fine dribbling move, before having her shot saved by the Mgarr goalkeeper Rachelle Borg.
With six minutes to go, Mr. Scicluna reshuffled his team by replacing all the senior team players namely Alishia Sultana, Raina Giusti and Tara Attard with youngsters Maria Fenech, Anthea Enriquez and Samantha Zarb.
Birkirkara tried their last desperate attempts, but Mgarr stood strong and kept the lead, as the referee blew the final whistle that saw the Stripes conceding another set-back.
BIRKIRKARA: Jennifer Galea, Guilia Micallef (30' Alexia Galea), Tara Attard (44' Samantha Zarb), Mariah Sciberras (30' Mireille Bellizzi), Alishia Sultana (44' Maria Fenech), Naomi Mizzi (36' Sarah Urpani), Raina Giusti (44' Anthea Enriquez).
MGARR: Rachelle Borg, Mirayah Aquilina, Nicole Cutajar, Thea Difesa, Luana Vella, Annalee Vella (42' Janice Borg), Patricia Ebejer (35' Angelique Schembri).
Scorers: 23' Analee Vella.
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