Malta U-16 beaten by Georgia in European Waterpolo Championsnhips

MALTA           8

GEORGIA     11

(0-1, 5-3, 0-5, 3-3)

The Malta waterpolo U-16 national team were beaten by Georgia in their opening match of the European Championships that are currently being held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Anthony Farrugia’s boys were far from their best, and although they managed to keep abreast with their opponents for much of the match, their fate was sealed late in the third session when Georgia scored four goals without reply to put themselves on the brink of victory.

The first session turned out to be a hard-fought affair with Georgia taking a slender one-goal lead through a Davit Landia strike.

But in the second quarter, the Maltese fought back and managed to score five times through a hat-trick from Matthew Soler, and further goals from Max Lanzon, and Benjamin Lewis to take a 5-4 lead when the ends were changed.

But in the third session, the Maltese seemed to lose their way as goals from Georgi Surmava, Lado Raminishvili, Landa, and Saba Abuladze put them 8-5 ahead.

The Maltese tried to rescue the match in the final session but the Georgians held off their efforts.

The final session ended three-all with Malta’s goals coming from Giulio Massa, Sebastian Van Wyk and Lewis as the Georgians held on for an 11-8 win.

Malta face a tough second match when they take on the Netherlands on Tuesday.

MALTA: L. Gatt, M. Lanzon 1, L. Camilleri Bowman, S. Van Wyk 1, J. Colombo, M. Soler 3, G. Massa 1, A. Buhagiar, J. Zammit, B. Lewis 2, G. Schembri, T. Schembri, Z. Schranz.