Samb double propels Gżira win

NAXXAR LIONS 0

GŻIRA UNITED 2

Samb 19 pen; 70

Gżira United continued their march towards an historic European spot after overcoming Naxxar Lions 2-0 to maintain their third spot ahead of Birkirkara. After a quiet 10 minutes, the game lit up when Daren Falzon was seen elbowing Clifford Gatt Baldacchino with Matthew De Gabriele giving the marching the orders to the Naxxar forward. Moments later, Haruna Garba sped towards Naxxar’s goal, lobbed the ball over Luan Gomes but Rafael Santos halted the danger when he cleared the ball off the line.

From the resultant set-piece, Gżira were awarded a penalty after Djijali Belhadj was seen pulling Prince Mambouana’s shirt inside the area.

The referee’s decision prompted anger from members of Naxxar on the bench with De Gabriele showing the red card to the Lions’ second goalkeeper Omar Borg after a heated discussion with the fourth official Jude Amin Utulu.

Amadou Samb took charge of the penalty and he managed to convert from the spot to score his 20th goal of the season and put the Maroons in front. Gżira found a way to double the score when Roderick Briffa sent a searching pass into the box on which Samb capitalised to head home and put...