The Gzira United Courier
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
A brace, and Raffaele Spanò takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Raffaele Spanò provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
Steve Azzopardi runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Tempers go at Gzira United
Edoardo Colombo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Marc Van de Bovenkamp falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match10 Nov 2035
Gzira United see off Birkirkara
Three points for Gzira United, 2‑1 the final word against Birkirkara in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
Andrea Rota in the eights
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
One of those days for Raffaele D'Ambrosio
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Pierre Pace signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pierre Pace commits to Gzira United for another 3 years.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Raffaele D'Ambrosio has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gzira United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
- Market The Edoardo Colombo talk will not go away
- Boardroom Gzira United keep producing them