by Birkirkara and Hibernians will be reigniting the Assikura Women’s League this evening at the Centenary Stadium at 20:15. Billy Mock and Martina Borg reflected on the importance of recent victories, with the latter also highlighting the impact of a break on the team. Having been hard to separate in the opening round, signings and further time to implement their philosophy with their teams could make tonight just as close.
Importance Of A Confident Win & The Relevance Of A Break
Birkirkara will be taking on Hibernians at the Centenary Stadium this evening at 20:15 as the two return to league commitments. The Stripes head into it hoping to make up for an earlier defeat to the Paolites this season, with the match finishing at 2 – 1.
Birkirkara had a commanding win against San Gwann on Saturday in the Jubilee Cup, with Billy Mock crediting his team for their mentality and approach to the match, “We knew that in the previous game, San Gwann came close to 4-3. So, my players did not take the game easy. No game is easy. But at times, especially in the second half, my players played very well when in possession. Therefore, we made it impossible for San Gwann to close all the gaps.”
The squad was heavily rotated, with notable absentees including Maya Pellegrini and Patricia Lamanna. Questioned about their absences, Billy Mock replied, “Maya was sick during the whole week. With regards Patty, it is just a question of form at present.”
Meanwhile, Hibernians had the weekend off after receiving a bye to the semi-finals of the Jubilee Cup in the draw, where in fact they will be meeting Birkirkara again. Their last outing was also against San Gwann, winning by 3 – 0, with debutant Sylivia Kabene scoring all three goals.
Questioned on the match and the impact of the debutant, Hibernians’ coach, Martina Borg, replied, “It was a big win, we dominated possession in a lot of moments and created a lot more chances than the score suggests. It’s positive that Sylivia scored three, but I was still upset with our first-half performance. I always tell the team that results follow if we play well, and in fact the score in the first half reflected it as we struggled to score. So, this is something we want to improve on.”
The Paolites come into tonight’s match with the benefit of a week away from competition. In fact, Martina Borg highlighted the importance of rest for the side, “I think it gave us an advantage to give some extra rest to the senior team players. They had been training throughout since pre-season so I thought it was beneficial for them to have some days off and then focus on preparation for this match.”
However, Martina Borg highlighted the lack of such a benefit for the younger players in the team who also had the U21 commitments, “On the other hand our U21s still had the game on Tuesday so they had to continue working throughout the weekend, so we were not able to give them as much rest as we would have liked to. However, overall I like to think that the break has served us well.”
Impact Of Strengthening On Match
As noted above, the previous match between the two sides finished with a victory for Hibernians by 2 – 1, with the Paolites overcoming an early conceded goal.
Since then both teams have strengthened with the introductions of Sylivia Kabene and also the yet-to-debut Misozi Zulu for Hibernians, while Birkirkara have shown strong introductions of Haruhi Sekura, Momo Ueda and the recently debuted Selina Anima.
Tonight’s fixture has an important bearing on their trajectory, with that win allowing Hibernians to currently lead the Stripes by three points in the table. Swieqi United are equal on points to Hibernians, with that side facing San Gwann tomorrow, also stirring the mix.
Billy Mock gave his view on the potential impact of these signings in the possibility of maintaining a lead should they earn it this evening. The Birkirkara coach was hesitant to call the match, “Both teams have strengthened their formation lately, as you correctly said. It is a very close game tomorrow that can go either way. No team is a walk over tomorrow unless there will be a surprise.”
Posed a similar question about the impacts of the signings in helping the team to earn the early lead and maintain it this time, Martina Borg weighed in, “I think we’ve grown a lot since our last match against Birkirkara. We continued to work our principles and to reinforce our game model which remained consistent, since I believe that if you do something for long enough and you do it well, you will become great at it and won’t need to change it.”
She continued, “So I will continue asking our players to stick to our instructions as coaching staff, to continue working on our principles and I feel that this, combined with the introduction of our new signings, puts us in a very good place, physically, tactically and mentally to get a good performance this evening. Of course, we take to the pitch aiming for the three points.”
The two teams will battle it out at the Centenary Stadium at 20:15.
Lead Image: Maraya Gauci
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