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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2014 51 Sport FOOTBALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MANGION Naxxar earn first win of the season Pieta Hotspurs .......... 0 Naxxar Lions ............. 4 NAXXAR Lions thumped Pieta Hotspurs 4-0 to earn their first win of the season. The result was a shock defeat for Pieta, who won two of their last three matches. The play at first produced few scoring opportunities, but Naxx- ar were the better side. They managed to take the lead in the 44th minute, when a throw-in ball by Uchenna Mbachu Emenike, was headed by Ibok in the direc- tion of Daren Falzon who then went on to beat goalkeeper David Cassar with a header. Seven minutes into the second half, Naxxar doubled their lead thanks to Emenike who had his diagonal shot beat goalkeeper David Cassar. In the 79th minute, Naxxar in- creased their lead when substitute Terrence Vella tapped the ball past Pieta's goalkeeper after re- ceiving a cross from Emenike. Naxxar made sure they col- lected all three points after they scored their fourth goal of the match in the 82nd minute – off a bad back pass by Pieta's Cain At- tard, Emenike's powerful shot left no chance for goalkeeper David Cassar. PIETÀ HOTSPURS David Cas- sar, Cleaven Cassar (60' Luke Mi- callef ), Christian Grech, Leonardo Fortunato dos Santos (77' Mal- colm Licari), Jurgen Pisani, Nicola Tasic (56' Claudio Frances), Cain Attard, Rafael Rodrigues da Silva, Kyle Cesare, Joao Gabriel Da Sil- va, Rafael Xavier Zacarias. Subs not used: Miguel Montford, Terence Agius, Orosco Nbubisi Anonam, Dylan Agius. Coach: Noel Coleiro NA X X AR LIONS Julian Azzop- ardi, Angus Buhagiar, Ryan Gil- mour Cassar, Gilmar da Silva Ribeiro, Mattia Del Negro (66' Victor Bellia), Emmanuel Ibok Edet, Uchenna Mbachu Eminike, Daren Falzon, Sidney Fraga Nery da Silva (17' Pablo Dof fo), Papa Gueye (78' Terrence Vella), An- drew Scicluna. Subs not used: Luke Pecorella, Jurgen Debono, Ryan Mercieca, Yaron Sammut. Coach: Jesmond Zerafa Referee: Trustin Farrugia Cann Assistant Referees: Roberto Vel- la, Jurgen Spiteri Fourth Of ficial: Sandro Spiteri Yellow Cards: Attard, Dof fo Scorers: 44' Daren Falzon, 52' Uchenna Emenike Mbachu, 79' Terrence Vella, 82 Uchenna Emenike Mbachu BOV Player of the Match: Uchen- na Mbachu Emineke Eden Hazard penalty gives Chelsea victory over QPR A review of Saturday's action in the Barclays Premier League CHELSEA survived a scare to maintain their four-point lead at the top of the Barclays Premier League with a 2-1 victory over neighbours QPR. Charlie Austin's fourth goal in five games just after the hour mark cancelled out Oscar's brilliant first-half strike to give struggling Rangers hope of a point. But 15 minutes from time Eden Hazard tumbled under Eduardo Vargas' challenge and the Belgian got up to coolly convert his fifth goal of the season. Southampton stay second after their 1-0 win at Hull, Victor Wan- yama scoring from 40 yards after third-choice Tigers goalkeeper El- din Jakupovic's poor clearance had fallen straight to him. Arsenal moved into the top four with a 3-0 home victory over Burnley, although they had to be patient against the winless Clar- ets. Alexis Sanchez and Calum Cham- bers ended Burnley's brave resist- ance with two goals in as many minutes inside the final quarter. Sanchez's 10th goal of the season in injury time wrapped up mat- ters. The Gunners move above West Ham on goal difference after the Hammers fought back from a two- goal deficit to earn a 2-2 draw at Stoke. Victor Moses' first Premier League goal in 14 months and Mame Biram Diouf put Stoke 2-0 ahead but Enner Valencia and Stew- art Downing extended West Ham's unbeaten run to four matches. Ayoze Perez was Newcastle's match-winner for the second time in a week as the Magpies edged past Liverpool 1-0 to claim a fourth successive victory. The former Tenerife forward, who scored the decisive goal at Tottenham last Sunday, netted from close-range with 13 minutes remaining to seal three points, the Magpies' third on the trot in the league, a feat they had not achieved since November last year. Swansea held Everton to a goal- less draw at home despite having Jonjo Shelvey sent off 19 minutes from time after picking up a sec- ond yellow card. West Brom deepened Leicester's gloom with a 1-0 win at the King Power Stadium, the Foxes now having gone five games without a win after Esteban Cambiasso's 47th minute own goal handed Al- bion victory. Eden Hazard of Chelsea celebrates his goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers Juve three points clear again Barca lose as Real go top Juventus take advantage of Roma's slip-up JU VENTUS capitalised on Roma's afternoon defeat to re-establish a three-point lead in Serie A by beating 10-man Empoli 2-0 at Sta- dio Carlo Castellani. The Italian champions' outright dominance of the league table dis- appeared last weekend thanks to their shock loss at Genoa, a result which allowed Roma to join them in a share of first place. The capital club went down 2-0 at Napoli on Saturday, however, meaning goals from Andrea Pirlo and Alvaro Morata in Tuscany handed the initiative back to the Bianconeri in this year's title race. Victory in Naples would have lifted the Giallorossi temporarily three points clear of Juve but after Gonzalo Higuain fired a st ylish early opener Roma were largely second best. Rudi Garcia's men did mount a rally after the break, yet their second defeat of the season was ultimately confirmed by a late strike from the industrious Jose Callejon. In the final match, Paolo De Ceglie scored the first brace of his career to give bottom club Parma a shock 2-0 win over Inter. LUIS Suarez's Nou Camp debut turned into a nightmare for Bar- celona as they were beaten 1-0 by coach Luis Enrique's former side Celta Vigo. The Catalan giants had nine shots on target and hit the woodwork three times, but the game was de- cided by Joaquin Larrivey's strike in the 55th minute - dealing Barca a first home defeat since January. The result was a second straight loss in La Liga for Luis Enrique's side following last weekend's Cla- sico reverse at the Bernabeu, and meant Barca also surrendered top spot to their arch rivals following Real Madrid's 4-0 win at Granada earlier on Saturday. Cristiano Ronaldo hit his 20th goal in 12 games to get Carlo An- celotti's side off to a dream start at the Nuevo Los Carmenes sta- dium and half an hour later James Rodriguez scored a wonder goal, followed by a tap in in the second half, while Karim Benzema also got in on the scoring act. This was yet another dominant performance from Los Blancos, who last week outplayed fierce rivals Barcelona and host a belea- guered Liverpool side on Tuesday. Antoine Griezmann scored twice and Koke had a hand in three goals as Atletico Madrid cruised to a 4-2 win against Cordoba. Griezmann put Atletico ahead just before the break but Nabil Ghilas grabbed the first of his two goals to level things up shortly af- ter the interval. Griezmann's second restored the home side's lead and further goals from Mario Mandzukic and Raul Garcia put the result beyond doubt before Ghilas scored his second. Getafe climbed to ninth in the ta- ble on Friday after they cruised to a 2-1 win over Deportivo la Coruna at the Estadio Riazor. Cosmin Contra's side came through tough conditions in the first half on Friday night to nip ahead of their hosts courtesy of an own goal from Deportivo goal- keeper Ramirez Fabricio. Angel Lafita doubled their lead 20 seconds into the second half and from there it was fairly com- fortable for the Azulones to hold out for the win, despite Helder Postiga grabbing a late consolation for Depor.