Watch: Malta waterpolo women’s U-16 team beat Ukraine for their first win at European Championship finals

MALTA            13

UKRAINE        12

(3-5, 2-1, 4-5, 4-1)

The Malta women’s U-16 national team bagged their first win at the European Championship finals when they edged Ukraine 13-12 in a thrilling encounter in Istanbul.

It was a spirited performance from Aurelien Cousin’s girls, who had to come from behind to see off their opponents and put themselves in a strong position to finish among the top 12 countries in the continental finals.

Malta is now sharing top spot in the group with Romania and will now await the result of Sunday’s clash between the Romanians and Ukraine as a win for the former will see Malta secure a place in the Top 12 phase of the competition.

But whatever happens on Sunday, the win over Ukraine is a major achievement for Cousin’s squad, which is formed by several young players.

One cannot not mention the performance of 11-year-old goalkeeper Mia Clarke Spiteri, the youngest player to be playing in this championship, and Chloe Amato and Ella Micheli, scorers of five and four goals respectively.

The result somewhat atones for the tough 14-10 defeat in Friday’s opening group match, where the Maltese girls had also come close to upsetting their more-quoted opponents but came up just short in the final stages of the match.  

“I could not be more prouder of the effort the girls today,” coach Aurelien Cousin told the Times of Malta.

“Yesterday, the girls were very disappointed as they felt that they could have achieved a better result against Romania.  But in the afternoon we regrouped as a team and this morning, they were determined to go out for the win and try and leave everything they had in the pool to achieve their goal.

“As the match progressed, the players started to listen to my instructions more and more and the team spirit was amazing.

“I am very pleased with this result as it shows that all the work we have put in is finally paying off. Winning against Ukraine is a major achievement, as despite all their problems, they are still a much bigger country than us, who boast much more resources and players.

“Ending the group with one win and one defeat is an amazing result, and we now just wait for the result of Sunday’s match between Romania and Ukraine to see if we will progress to the Top 12 or not.

“Whatever happens, we will keep working hard to continue to make Malta proud.”

Ukraine were off to a strong start as they raced into a 5-3 lead by the end of the opening session, with Malta’s goals coming from a brace from Chloe Amato and another from Kaylon Cutajar.

The Maltese girls fought back in the second session, and goals from Micheli and Luisa Borgia enabled them to change ends 6-5 behind.

The third session turned out to be a hard-fought affair with the Ukrainians seemingly gaining a crucial two-goal lead before the final quarter – 11-9.

Amato stood out for Malta when netting a hat-trick with the other goal coming from Nevise Agius.

But the character of the Maltese girls came to the fore in the final session as Micheli scored a fine hat-trick to pull her team level at 12-all to throw the match wide open.

It was the Maltese girls who managed to hold control of their nerves with Agius firing home a brilliant goal to hand the team a fine victory.

MALTA: R. Babiker, L. Borgia 1, K. Portelli, C. Amato 5, H. Camilleri, M. Grech, K. Cutajar, E. Micheli 4, M. Tully, E. Cushing, N. Agius 2, M. Clarke Spiteri