Valletta stay on course for a double

A depleted Valletta who betrayed signs of tiredness and dug deep into their energy reserves to beat Gżira United 2-0 and book a place in next Saturday’s FA Trophy final against Balzan.

Valletta’s superiority surfaced immediataly during the first half but they could only resolve the issue with two late goals.

Eight minutes from the start, Mario Fontanella found himself in space on the left and duly tried to exploit the situation with a fierce shot but Justin Haber blocked his effort.

Two minutes later, Kyrian Nwoko floated an intelligent pass towards Bojan Kaljevic but the striker could only get a faint touch to the ball as he tried to shoot.

With Gżira lacking the early spark to pose problems to Valletta, the Citizens stayed in command. At times, Valletta’s high defensive line was caught out by the speed and movement of Haruna Garba. During a hot raid after 22 minutes, Valletta failed to clear his low with Edison Zarate scrambling his shot.

On 38 minutes, Justin Haber kept Gżira afloat when he first warded off Pulis’s flick. In next to no time, the goalkeeper picked himself up to make another fine save as he dived to keep out Nwoko’s grounder.

Valletta showed up again, this time...