YoHealth Malta Premier 2025/26
Opening Round – MD5
Marsaxlokk….1
Floriana………2
Floriana bounced back from their mid-week defeat to Valletta by edging leaders Marsaxlokk two to one, scoring in each half to leapfrog their rivals in the table. With head coach Mauro Portela suspended, assistant Jean Paul Desira directed operations from the touchline and saw his side deliver a composed away performance.
Floriana threatened inside five minutes when Dunstan Vella let fly after a pass from Gonzalo Gamarra, only for Christoffer Mafoumbi to turn the effort behind. Marsaxlokk replied on ten minutes as Ulises Arias cut in from the right and forced Guilherme Cioletti to tip wide.
The Greens grew into the contest. A Mustapha Jah header drew another save from Mafoumbi before the Gambian forward burst through five minutes before the interval, shrugged off a challenge inside the area and finished past the keeper to send Floriana in one-nil up.
Ten minutes after the restart Floriana stitched together a slick move involving several players, but Federico Varela shot over when a square ball to Jah looked on. With a quarter of an hour remaining, Leandro Aguirre tried his luck from distance, missing the target as Marsaxlokk pushed for parity.
The game’s outstanding moment arrived at seventy-eight minutes. Jake Grech stepped onto a bouncing ball and unleashed a perfect strike from range that rose into the top corner for a spectacular second. Marsaxlokk halved the deficit in the eighty-ninth minute when, from a corner, Owen Spiteri diverted the ball into his own net, but there was not enough time for the hosts to salvage a point.
Referee: Slobodan Petrovic
Marsaxlokk: Christoffer Mafoumbi, Juan Carlos Corbalan, Leandro Aguirre, Weder Soares, Oualid El Hasni Dodo Soares, Triston Caruana, Joseph Minala, Nikolai Muscat, Ulises Arias, Redon Mihana, Marcelo Barros.
Floriana: Guilherme Cioletti, Zachary Scerri, Gonzalo Gamarra replaced by Antiago De Flavia on ninety minutes, Owen Spiteri, Iago Mendonca, Dunstan Vella, Gideon Akoi Arok, Francisco Teixeira, Federico Varela, Jake Grech, Mustapha Jah.
