TIRANA, Feb. 21 – Italy-born Ghanaian striker Caleb Ekuban scored a winner for Partizani in the derby with Tirana, allowing the Reds to keep pace with leaders Kukesi and Skenderbeu and keep alive their decades-long Superliga title hopes.
It all started well for Partizani after an early goal by defender Renato Malota, who scored a header contested as offside by Tirana.
Tirana responded at the beginning of the second half with an equalizer by defender Osli Teqja.
Caleb Ekuban scored another decisive goal in the 70th minute to give Partizani a much-needed win and trail leaders Kukesi by four points with 14 other games to go. Ekuban, who joined Partizani only this season on loan from Italy’s Chievo Verona, has scored 10 goals with Partizani so far, only three fewer than top scorer Pero Pejic, the Croatian Kukes striker.
Once the most successful club under communism, Partizani have been trophilesss in the Albanian top league since the early 1990s, but are favourites to win this year’s title after finishing second last season.
The Reds made a historic comeback to European club football last summer replacing Skenderbeu in the Champions League qualifying campaign after the Albanian champions were banned from European competition for 1 year over match fixing allegations.
The derby went quite smooth with no incidents also due to the fact that Tirana’s fiercest fans boycotted the game.
Tirana, who haven’t won a Superliga title since 2009, have been recently facing problems with its “Tirona Fanatics” supporters who have not appeared in stadium in the past few games following a club decision to allow arch-rivals Partizani play their home matches in their ‘Selman Stermasi’ stadium.
“It was not a response toward Kukes and Skenderbeu, but to our own progress. No doubt the derby produces tension. We had a different challenge for this match, Tirana had simply mobilized for the derby’s importance, while we were also under pressure for a win,” said Partizani coach Sulejman Starova.
“We were not brilliant, but we triumphed against an opponent that was a lot calmer than us. We had opportunities to double and took the game under control after the draw and could have even scored a third goal,” he added.
Tirana’s coach Mirel Josa said he was dissatisfied with the team’s performance and their fourth consecutive defeat in the Superliga’s second half.
“I was not satisfied with the performance, especially in the second half and the way we conceived the goals. We have been facing four consecutive defeats and we are not going through a good moment, but I don’t feel under pressure. We will now think about the next match,” said Josa who took over as Tirana’s coach last November when the country’s most successful club was facing tough times.
In a statement, the club blamed the loss on the referee who they said allowed an offside goal for Partizani, denied Tirana a penalty kick and constantly ruled against Tirana.
Northeastern Albania based Kukes seem on track for a Superliga title this season in their fifth attempt to make it after playing in the Superliga for only the past six years and finishing second four times.
Sixth straight champions Skenderbeu have also gained ground, trailing Kukes by only 2 points.
