Victoria Hotspurs are the only team from the National Amateur League 2 to reach the Amateur Cup semi finals. They managed to beat Birzebbuga St Peters by 3 goals to one at the Sirens Stadium on Sunday.
Victoria Hotspurs started strongly with a number of corners and a header by Ferdinando Apap going just wide on 3 minutes. The Gozitans missed a good chance on 6 minutes when Kurt Borg profited from a dreadful slip up in the Southseasiders’ defence but Antoinio Chetcuti saved well.
It was Birzebbuga who took the lead on 10 minutes when Samuel Saldanha latched onto a loose ball and smashed a brilliant shot in the corner of the net leaving Adrian Parnis with no chance. Two minutes later, Emmanuel Mbong missed an absolute sitter with the ball smashing against the crossbar as the Hotspurs reacted ferociously.
The atch quietened down for a while with the next chance being a header by Kurt Borg that went just over on 28 minutes. Three minutes later, Mbong released Shaun Attard who had a low shot well saved by Chetcuti.
Victoria Hotspurs equalized on 57 minutes when a cross by Shaun Attard found Kurt Borg who ingeniously guided the ball into the bottom corner fooling Chetcuti. And after more pressure, Victoria Hotspurs went ahead on 76 minutes when a header from Appa ended up brilliantly saved by Chetcuti with the ball rebounding off the crossbar and Dejan Bogdanovic was on hand to pounce and head into the net.
Right at the very end, Victoria made it three with a simple tap in from Kurt Borg who also grabbed a brace to send the Hotspurs into the semi-finals.
Mellieha 2 Qormi 1
The opening minutes were quite bland as both sides appeared pretty balanced in the last Amateur Cup Final of the weekend. Mellieha created the first opportunity after 22 minutes with a brilliant shot by Adonis that was well saved by Miguel Montfort.
After a dreadful first half with no action, the situation turned for the worse for Mellieha when Adonis was immediately sent off for retaliating on 55 minutes. But incredibly, Qormi were also reduced to ten men just 4 minutes later when Clayton Salerno was sent off for a second yellow card.
Mellieha were desperately unlucky not to take the lead on 65 minutes when Christopher Edafe had a brilliant shot that cannoned off the post with Montfort beaten. But five minutes later, the Blues took a deserved lead when Alexander Akl managed to guide a fine low shot into the bottom corner.
Mellieha ended up with 9 men after Leon Theuma received his marching orders. But incredibly, the Northerners made it 2-0 with a brilliant strike by their captain Jacob Farrugia to practically sew up the tie. Qormi pulled one back in stoppage time through Kevin Camilleri but nine men Mellieha held on to reach a prestigious Amateur Cup semi final.
On Saturday the two other quarter finals were played with Qrendi prevailing in the first one, 4-1 against Kercem Ajax.
MFA National Amateur Cup (Q/final) – Sat 23 Nov 2024 – Kercem Stadium
Kercem Ajax FC – FT (1-4) – Qrendi FC
Referee: Wayne Sammut
27’ (1-0) Cesar Velez Da Silva
32’ (1-1) Brandon Bray
43’ (1-2) Gianfranco Micallef
53’ (1-3) Leonardo Fernandes Andrade
66’ (1-4) Ayesller Carvalho
In the other semi final, Attard beat Xghajra Tornados by two goals to nil.
