Waterpolo: San Ġiljan Tum Invest a point away from securing title

SAN ĠILJAN TUM INVEST……15

VALLETTA…………………………8

(3-2), (4-2), (4-2), (4-2)

League leaders San Ġiljan Tum Invest are now one point away from being mathematically champions after they defeated Valletta United 15-8 to keep up their record of winning all games so far. This eleventh win of the league didn’t surprise anyone as San Ġiljan have been superior throughout the whole season.

Marko Orlovic had to do without centre Peter Borg and captain Matthew Zammit who had an injury in his right ear which he picked up from the mid-week game against Sirens. But despite having to play without two senior players, San Ġiljan still had the control of the match, and the youngsters filled in well for these missing players.

Aleksandar Ivovic continued to show his dominance in the pitch scoring five goals, while Dino Zammit also had a great game netting a poker of goals. On the other hand, Serbian Boris Vapenski was Valletta’s main scorer with four goals.

As expected San Ġiljan started the game by taking lead, and slowly started to take control, but didn’t dominate like they normally do in the opening session, winning it 3-2 with Ryan Mock reducing the margin for Valletta.

San Ġiljan were looking to open up a comfortable lead but in two occasions, Valletta scored to stay within reach. But it was Paul Fava who made it 6-4 to put the Saints two goals ahead. Valletta coach Stephen Rizzo called a time-out in their last action of the session to try and reduce the margin ahead of the third session, but they lost the possession instantly and permitted San Ġiljan another chance, in which Joseph Galea scored from a tight angle.

The three-goal advantage seemed to change the rhythm of the game, as the leaders were searching to kill the game, and did so by opening up a five=goal advantage, a margin that they kept till the end of the third session. Marko Orlovic continued to rotate his team, but San Ġiljan kept the same rhythm as they did in the previous sessions to continue increasing their advantage to win the game in comfortable fashion.

San Ġiljan: J. Tanti, T. Said, A. Galea, B. Grech, J. Galea (1), M. Zammit, B. Plumpton (1), D. Zammit, A. Ivovic (5), A. Cousin (1), P. Fava (3), D. Zammit (4), T. Micallef

Valletta: R. Sciortino, J. Spiteri Staines, A. Agius, M. Rizzo, M. Fenech (1), R. Mock (1), D. Paolella (1), A. Mifsud, M. Cordina (1), B. Vapenski (4), K. Galea, D. Fenech, F. Buhagiar

Referees: Peter Balzan, Fabio Brasiliano

Source: www.independent.com.mt

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