Europa keep themselves at touching distance from the top

It was an intense six minutes between Europa and Manchester 62. After just one minute, Europa opened the scoring with a quick break that saw the shot squeeze between the keeper and the post.
Despite looking disciplined and confident on the ball, Europa gave away their lead in the seventh minute with a foul that resulted in a penalty, allowing Manchester 62 to level the score.
Europa—now the only team capable of challenging the top two for the top spots—needed a victory to keep their hopes alive. With St Joseph’s having dropped points, pole position, although still distant, was mathematically possible if Europa could gather points in their final five matches.
Manchester 62, although out of the running, had been no slouches this season and showed they were far from relaxed in this championship group stage of the league.
A third-place finish for Europa, although a vast improvement from last season prior to Di Piedi’s arrival, was still not enough. Without European football as a reward, finishing third held little value beyond status.
The Italian Di Piedi had transformed the Green and Blacks—now playing more frequently in pink. It wasn’t just the colour change; the team’s disciplined attitude and newfound confidence marked the biggest differences in the club since their previous decline.
The match gradually lost its initial intensity as both sides cancelled each other out, with unforced errors doing little to help the game’s fluidity. A series of fouls caused frequent stoppages, slowing the pace further as they entered the final ten minutes of the first half.
Manchester had done enough to take the wind out of Europa’s sails. However, with a history of faltering in the final 20 minutes of matches, Manchester remained on the back foot, focusing primarily on defence.
The second half started much the same as the first had ended. It was far from a classic, and with the Manchester Derby live on TV, it was easy to see why interest in the match faded—even among the few supporters in the stands.
Although Europa began to build some momentum, it was Manchester who came closest first, with a shot going just wide 17 minutes into the second half. Europa responded immediately with a confident surge forward, ending in their second goal just a minute later.
Di Piedi could be seen on the touchline urging his players to push for another, as Europa began to see the rewards of their growing dominance.
As Manchester threatened to equalise, a red card was shown to their bench, forcing the head coach to leave the field.
Europa, however, struggled to build further on their advantage. Sloppy passing and Manchester’s defensive resilience meant possession remained evenly split.
Europa did come close again, striking the post around the 50th minute of the second half, in a match that saw ten minutes of injury time due to the many stoppages.
The 2–1 victory puts Europa on the right path to challenge for a European spot via automatic league qualification. They now face St Joseph’s, where a win could reduce the eight-point gap between them and set the stage for a final push—including a crucial clash against Lincoln Red Imps.
In other matches played in the Championship round Lions Gibraltar faced Bruno Magpies just a week after the Rock Cup Final.
Lions were not to provide any further improvement to their defeat last week going down 2-1 against last weeks Rock Cup winners.
Bruno Magpies, although too far to challenge for the top two places have already secured European club competition football and were not expected to put on a high end performance.
The match was to prove somewhat dull and technical with neither side with anything more than ranking places to play for and pride.