Sliema Wanderers and Birzebbuga met in the third round of the Premier League regular season, and the visitors took the points. The final score stood at 1:2 after ninety minutes of play. Both clubs arrived at this fixture having dropped all their opening matches. They were looking for a first win of the campaign.
Sliema took the lead when N. Robertha struck in the 34th minute. To be fair, the visitors had chances to respond before half-time. Several yellow cards appeared as tensions rose, including bookings for Gustavo Alcino and H. Bonello.
The momentum shifted quickly after the interval. Alex Bruno brought the visitors level in the 56th minute, and by then the game had opened up. Substitutions followed immediately, with N. Robertha and L. Montebello coming off. The hosts could not recover, as I. Cojocaru scored the winner just five minutes later. A yellow card for an unnamed player in the 61st minute did little to calm the situation.
The result keeps both sides at the bottom of the table. Sliema Wanderers sit in 11th place with zero points, while Birzebbuga are in 10th. Neither team has registered a win or a draw so far this season.
The defeat adds to a difficult start for the hosts. They had lost 2:0 to Florian and 2:0 to Hibernians recently. The visitors showed resilience after a narrow loss to Zapur Saint Patrick last week. And here's the thing: this is their first victory in the league.