Malta

Challenge League (Top 6)

Saturday 2nd March 2024

Kick Off 16.30 Actual 16.34

Zabbar St. Patrick 2 Zurrieq 0, attendance 350

34’ 1-0

82’ 2-0

@ Centenary Stadium

Triq ta Vnezja

Attard

ATD 4000

€6 Admission

No Programme.

It took no more than five minutes to do the short walk from National Stadium to the adjacent Centenary Stadium, even via the longer route exiting the former on the far side from where we needed to be. It was opened in 1999 and is a 3G surface with a capacity of 3,000 seats, all on one side, with each club once again allocated half of the stand each. Despite being relatively new, the sight lines are poor, with a low glass screen at the front and the near touchline can’t be seen wherever you sit as it is too tight to the seats.

The match was in the Challenge League, which is tier two in Malta and was a Top 6 match, where the teams that finished in the top half of the table play each other again, retaining their points already gained to date, in order to see who gains promotion to the Premier League at the end of it, with this being 2nd versus 6th in the table.

It was a crazy start to proceedings as Zabbar St. Patrick had a man sent off after just three minutes, bringing down an opposition player who would have been through on goal had he not been fouled. Six minutes later it was 10 a side, as Zurrieq had a man sent off for blocking a goal bound shot with his hand. The penalty was missed though, with the ‘keeper easily saving low to his right. Zabbar did break the deadlock just after the half hour mark, when a ball pulled back from the left was well saved by the ‘keeper, but put in on the rebound by the player who’d seen his penalty saved earlier on.

The second half was played at a much slower pace and Zabbar grabbed the all important second goal with eight minutes left, when a speculative effort from 25 yards out found the bottom corner and should really have been stopped by the ‘keeper. The win sees Zabbar now top the group, although second in the table Melita will regain the lead if they win their game tomorrow.

With the problem of where the bus would be running from after the game, we decided to order an Uber back in to Valletta instead and were picked up less than five minutes after the final whistle.

Malta

Premier League

Saturday 2nd March 2024

Kick Off 14.00 On Time!

Hamrun Spartans 1 Valletta 1, attendance 3,000

45’ + 3, 1-0

57’ 1-1

@ Ta’ Qali National Stadium

Triq ta Vnezja

Attard

ATD 4000

€10 Admission

No Programme.

The first match today saw a seven mile bus ride out of Valletta (€2.50 flat rate) to the Ta’ Qali National Stadium, just to the west of the town of Attard. It ended with a fifteen minute walk at the end, rather than a drop off outside the stadium, as roadworks meant the final approach road was closed off and the bus driver knew nothing about it and refused to go round, opting to abort the journey where we were. It certainly didn’t go down too well with a number of locals, one of which rang the bus company to vent his anger at them! As the name suggests, the stadium is home to the national team and has an all seated capacity of 17,797 although only the main stand was in use today, with each team allocated half each and we opted for seats in the Valletta section, purely based on the fact that it was the first ticket booth we arrived at. These are two of the most successful teams as far as Maltese League titles go, with Hamrun having won nine titles and Valletta twenty five (only Sliema Wanderers and Floriana, both with 26 have won more) and Hamrun came into this as league leaders, whilst Valletta are having a poor season by their standards, lying down in twelfth place (out of 14) and are in danger of being relegated.

It was a decent atmosphere, with Hamrun having the larger support, although neither set of fans had that much to shout about. It was a first half of few chances. Hamrun went close early on, but the Valletta ‘keeper kept out a good chance from about eight yards out and it looked as if we’d be heading for the halftime break goalless, but Hamrun managed to break the deadlock three minutes into stoppage time, cutting in from the left and finishing with an angled shot into the far corner, with no time to re-start.

Valletta levelled twelve minutes into the second half, nicking the ball off a defender on his blind side and he tripped the striker just inside the box as he attempted to clear. The penalty was easily saved by the ‘keeper, but the rebound was followed in successfully. The nearest we came to either side getting a winner was when Valletta saw a header from a corner come back off the crossbar with twenty minutes left.

There was plenty of time to make it to the second game of the day, kicking off at 16.30 at Centenary Stadium, handily located no more than 100 yards away, running widthways behind the north end of the National Stadium, although our side of the stand had to exit via the far side of the ground, which basically doubled the distance! What could possibly be easier when doing a double….