Full Report

Goals from Christian Rutjens, Kike and Toni García secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over Lions Gibraltar last night as we continued our strong start to the Gibraltar Football League campaign.

Despite controlling the early stages of the encounter, it was Lions who created the first clear-cut opportunity. Saber Bchari delivered a dangerous cross towards the back post, where Evan Busto saw his effort saved by Nauzet García.

We broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute when Mandi delivered a free-kick into the box, which was flicked on by Graeme Torrilla into the path of Christian Rutjens, who volleyed past Fernando Canto at the back post to give us the lead.

Our advantage was doubled in the 36th minute when Facundo Álvarez delivered a low, driven cross into the penalty area, where Kike was on hand to poke the ball home from close range and send us into the break with a deserved 2-0 lead.

Head Coach Juanma Pavón made a double substitution at the start of the second half, introducing Yussef Flalhi and Nano in place of Leon Mason and Kike.

We continued to control proceedings after the restart, with Pavón making another change in the 71st minute as Alex Mula replaced Facundo Álvarez in our search for a third goal to put the result beyond doubt.

Lions were reduced to ten men in the 81st minute when James Nikolovski received two yellow cards in quick succession, with his second booking coming after sarcastically applauding the referee’s decision to caution Manu Toledano for a foul on Evan Busto.

We made our numerical advantage count four minutes later when Yussef Flalhi produced an excellent piece of play to glide past his marker before cutting the ball back into the path of Toni García, who fired home from close range to seal a convincing 3-0 victory.

The result keeps us in third place in the Gibraltar Football League standings, just one point behind FC Magpies and two points adrift of league leaders St Joseph's.

We now turn our attention to our next league fixture against FC Hound Dogs as we look to build on our winning momentum and continue our push towards the top of the table.