Football: Airtel Cup-Zialor’s hat-trick inspires St Michel to 5-0 victory |20 April 2007

At times, it looked like a match between boys and men as St Michel totally dominated the defending first division champions in all areas on the field.

After Zialor had latched on a loose ball and curled it past Anse Réunion’s goalkeeper Ricky Rose to open the floodgates, the boys of coach Ralph Jean-Louis started to strike the ball around much to the delight of their supporters.

Deployed in midfield, Malagasy Pascal Razakanantenaina enjoyed himself as he tormented the Anse Réunion defence with his dribbling skills.

In the 25th minute, Pascal picked the ball up in midfield and went on a slalom run which took him past his marker, St Michel’s former Kenyan defender Zablon Amanaka. Pascal cut the ball inside for Marcel Labiche who tapped it home for a 2-0 lead.

St Michel extended their lead to 3-0 following a sweeping move in the 32nd minute.

Nelson Laurence created space and filtered a pass to Zialor who had sneaked inside the Anse Réunion penalty area. Sandwiched by two defenders, Zialor managed to toe-poke the ball into the far bottom corner and out of the reach of the diving ‘keeper Rose.

Anse Réunion, who found it hard to get going, missed two good opportunities through Yelvanny Rose (in the 28th minute and late in the first half). In the 64th minute, substitute Dominique Kiyambu’s header was cleared on the line by St Michel’s defender Danny César.

St Michel stretched the advantage to four goals in the 65th minute as Alex Nibourette fed Laurence who held off his marker to shoot low past an overworked goalie Rose.

After missing a couple of chances, St Michel completed the rout on the stroke of full time. Zialor looked suspiciously offside as he received the ball inside Anse Réunion’s penalty area and he placed his shot at the far post for a 5-0 score.

St Michel’s manager Brian Uranie was ecstatic with his team’s superlative performance, but was surprised with Anse Réunion’s lackluster showing.

Uranie added that his team aim to maintain their unbeaten run in the Airtel Cup as they meet Red Star tomorrow. They will be without Pascal who left the country yesterday for his homeland to prepare for the Cosafa Castle Cup in Mozambique.

Madagascar is in group A along with Seychelles, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

As for Anse Réunion’s coach Vojo Gardasevic, he was very disappointed with his team’s overall display, especially his defence who conceded too many easy goals.

R. J-L.