Women’s football old foes meet in KO final

The final showdown of the women’s game sees Malta’s dominant force Birkirkara eyeing a domestic treble having already retained the national title while lifting the Super Cup as well.

Led by coach Jose Borg, who oversees Birkirkara’s men team too, Birkirkara secured their 12th national title despite seeing their record run of unbeaten games in the domestic competitions come to an end, having lost also to Saturday’s opponents Hibernians this season.

They will be representing Malta in the upcoming edition of the women’s Champions League having been granted the UEFA license for the 2024/2025 season.

Back in December, American winger Arianna Del Moral scored twice to inspire Birkirkara to a Super Cup success as the expense of Swieqi – their sixth.

Birkirkara produced excellent statistics in both defensive and attacking phases having scored 87 goals – the league’s best – while conceding just 5 goals across their 23 outings.

They maintained two straight clean sheets in their journey to the cup final, with veteran goalkeeper Tonina Dimech replacing the injured Janice Xuereb, having eliminated Lija Athletic (7-0) and Valletta (1-0), even though the performance against the Citizens left a lot to be desired.

Birkirkara have every right to be upbeat about their chances of beating Hibernians, having won four of their five season head-to-head meets in this campaign.

The Stripes won the first round encounter 2-0 before clinching a trio of 3-0 wins in the other three encounters.

Replacing the injured Xuereb, who damaged her ACL while on duty with the national team in the Euro qualifiers, will be former Malta goalkeeper Dimech.

Born in 1960, Dimech played in the first ever international game for a Maltese women selection back in 2003.

She started her career out at Melita before moving to Birkirkara prior to the 2001/2002 campaign and has won every domestic trophy.

Hibernians, on their part, did manage to stun Birkirkara and delay their title celebrations by a week after a late Kiley Norkus penalty handed the Paolites a narrow victory in their Round 4 tie.

It was one of Kenneth Costantino’s victories against the Top Four teams since he took over as coach of the Paolites in January.

The Paolites bested last year’s fourth place as they finished third with 41 points having won 13 and drew twice.

They scored 58 goals and conceded 30 goals across their 23 league games in this 2023/2024 campaign, managing to keep a clean sheet against Birkirkara as well.

After improving on their season final rankings, Hibernians will be hoping to go one step further from last year’s Knockout edition having lost to Swieqi in the final.

Hibs, one of the most decorated teams in the local women’s game, are chasing their first silverware since the 2016 Super Cup.

Their last success in this competition was in the 2015/2016 edition when they defeated Raiders Luxol in the final.

This will be the eighth time that Birkirkara and Hibernians will cross swords in the final with the Stripes, record winners with 16 triumphs in this competition, emerging victorious on five occasions.

Their last final meeting dates to the 2013/2014 season when Birkirkara won 2-1 with goals from Rachel Cuschieri, now at Sampdoria, and Rebecca Chircop.

Featuring for the Stripes was current captain Stephania Farrugia, Alishia Sultana, Gabriella Zahra, Janice Xuereb and Raina Giusti who are still on the books of the team.

On the other hand, another two Birkirkara players appearing in that final were Charlene Zammit and Francesca Chircop, then at Hibernians.

Martina Borg, current Hibernians’ captain, was part of the Paolites’ squad in that game.

Tickets are available at tickets.mfa.com.mt.

Images copyright Lara Schembri - The Sporting Fan, Elena Grech