MALTA 16
SLOVENIA 8
The Malta U-19 national secured their first win in the European Championships when they brushed aside the challenge of Slovenia 16-8 in Burgas on Wednesday.
It was a commanding performance by Milan Cirovic’s outfit who were desperate to break their duck in the competition after finishing bottom of their group following defeats to the Netherlands Turkey, and France.
Malta will now face France or Czechia in the play-off for 13th and 14th place on Thursday.
Malta were off to a storming start as they opened a commanding 6-2 lead by the end of the first session. They built their commanding display through a very solid defensive set-up that left the Slovenians struggling to have a sniff at goal.
Alec Fenech was the protagonist for Malta in the opening session with his sharp-shooting skills as he netted a hat-trick.
The other goals for Malta came from Jake Cachia, Luigi Mallia and Luigi Dimech.
In the second session, the Slovenians fought back as they profited from Malta’s failure to take the chances that came their way to bridge the gap to just two goals – 8-6.
In fact, Max Zammit was Malta’s only scorer during the session and Alec Fenech missing a penalty.
At the other end, the Slovenians netted four goals with Martin Petkovic netting twice with the othe goals coming from Tim Kacic and Jurij Seljak to blow the match wide open.
The Maltese youngsters recovered their poise in the third session as a Jayden Cutajar penalty conversion handed them a three-goal advantage.
Cirovic’s boys started to defend better giving little opportunity to the Slovenians to create any danger to end the quarter with a vital clean sheet.
The Maltese widened their gap to five goals courtesy of goals by Dean Bugeja and a penalty conversion by Dimech for an 11-6 lead heading into the final quarter.
Malta remained in command in the final session as an Alec Fenech brace extended their advantage to six goals – 13-7.
Cirovic’s lads kept piling the goals with Luigi Dimech, Luigi Mallia and Julian Chircop making it a final 16-8 scoreline.
