Lincoln beat Europa Point

Lincoln Red Imps 4-0 Europa Point

Lincoln Red Imps did not take long to open their tally. Having defended a corner from Europa Point that had put some pressure on their defense, Lincoln countered. A quick break left the ball in the center against a Europa Point defense chasing back, which Juanfri pounced on to score. Twelve minutes had gone, and Lincoln searched for a second and nearly found it just a minute after scoring their first. Europa Point had played on Wednesday against St Joseph and lost 3-0, ensuring that they had now played all three top teams. Lincoln Red Imps, as expected, placed Europa Point under pressure, with the Sky Blues holding fast while patiently waiting to see if they could find a break forward. They had few chances to do so as they dug in deep. Europa Point had to stay alert with Lincoln, with enough firepower with the likes of Tjay de Barr and Juanfri, not only waiting for a chance to pounce but also more than capable of playing the ball at their feet and creating space for others. Europa Point’s keeper and defense were kept busy with some good stops from the keeper. For a prolonged period of time, the light blue team was unable to come out from their final third of the pitch, such was Lincoln’s pressure on them. Lincoln kept two defenders back, even though for most of the half, they had nobody to mark. This allowed the defending league champions extra width to play with as they backtracked at times in an attempt to pull Europa Point out of their packed grouping at the back.
With three minutes into the second half, Juanfri hit the post and was then shoved to the ground, but no penalty was given. Lincoln had to wait until the 60th minute to score their second, with Liam Walker curling low on the outside of the defensive wall to squeeze the ball past a surprised keeper from a free kick. Europa Point had done well to survive the continuous onslaught, but the goal seemed inevitable, even though this was not Lincoln’s finest performance, especially after their ten goals the previous weekend.
The third goal came from Pena, who flicked a header from a corner kick across goal to the far post on the 74th minute. Somehow, a packed goalmouth saw nobody stopping the flick through. The goal scorer was replaced on the 76th minute. Just two minutes later, it was Roy Chipolina with a rare incursion forward who met the ball well with a header as he ran into the penalty area to score the fourth. Just moments earlier, Lincoln Red Imps had seen the ball hit the post from a similar corner to the one that had produced the third goal. It was a comfortable win for Lincoln, who, on collecting the three points, climbed above St Joseph’s once again. This forced St Joseph to have to look for the three points against Bruno Magpies if they were to have any chance to challenge for the title.
Walker hit the crossbar with a brilliant shot in injury time from some distance. The ball just hung in the air as it went over the keeper and dipped at the end, hitting the crossbar.