Malta U-16’s girls wrap up Development Tournament with Faroes win

MALTA U-16 2-1 FAROE ISLANDS U-16
Saliba (M) 30, Farrugia 60 (M), Petersen 63 (F).

The Maltese U-16’s girls side wrapped up this year’s Development Tournament with a hard-fought victory over the Faroe Islands, on Monday afternoon.

Birkirkara’s Sara Saliba and captain Lexine Farrugia, of Raiders Lija, grabbed a goal each in the first half to propel Malta to their first victory in regular time in this tournament.

Following this victory, Malta finished joint-level with Latvia on five points with Slovakia topping the four-team tournament with eight points. The Faroes finished bottom with three straight defeats.

For the third straight match, coach Kathleen Saliba made some changes to Malta’s starting formation – once again captained by Lexine Farrugia, including Birkirkara’s star Sara Saliba being given the nod upfront.

In the early stages of the game, the two teams produced an end-to-end game but they failed to make the most of their possession.

On the 20th minute, Saliba came close to put Malta ahead but after dribbling past the Faroese goalkeeper, her effort was cleared just in time into corner.

The Nordic side replied through Eyda Dalheim whose close-range effort went inches wide from Maya Muscat’s goal.

Malta broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark when Farrugia teed up Saliba who slotted past the Faroese goalkeeper.

Faroe’s number 10, Dalheim, threatened again with a header that glanced past Muscat’s goal five minutes from half-time.

The Maltese side doubled their lead through captain Farrugia who fired a long-range effort who the Faroese goalkeeper failed to block before rolling into the net.

The Faroe Islands pulled one back through Alda Petersen who capitalised from a left-sided cross to beat Maya Muscat from inside the small area.

MALTA
M. Muscat; F. Bartolo (73 A. Galea), L. Farrugia (68 A. Vassallo), A. Micallef, E. Micallef (46 L. Azzopardi), T. Scicluna, I. Abela (58 L. Frendo), N. Attard, L. Calleja (68 N. Celeste), S. Francalanza, S. Saliba (73 M. Gauci).
Coach: Kathleen Saliba.

FAROE ISLANDS
I. Rasmussen (35 R. Streym); M. Ostero, R. Reginsdottir, M. Laursen (80 B. Poulsen), L. Djurhuus, A. Jorginsdottir, S. Hansen, E. Dalheim, H. Mikkelsen, P. Geyti (35 A. Petersen), B. Mohr.
Coach: Eydvor Jakobsen.