Malta U-18 national team crush Ukraine in European Championship opener

The Malta waterpolo U-18 national team were off to an impressive start at the European Championship finals after brushing aside Ukraine 24-6 in their opening group match in Oradea, Romania, on Monday.

Jonathan Valletta’s boys were in a class of their own throughout the encounter and have now put themselves just one win away from reaching the Top 12 stage of the competition.

Skipper Jayden Cutajar and Julian Chircop were the stand-out performers for Malta in terms of goals as they found the net five times each, but it was an impressive all-round performance as the Ukrainians never got into the match.

The opening session was dominated by the Maltese side, who managed to score six goals through Jayden Cutajar and Giancarlo Gatt, who netted a brace each, with the other goals coming from Sam Engerer and Sean Mifsud.

The second session saw the Ukrainians trying to fight back, but the Maltese were still too good for them, adding six more goals to their scoreline through Julian Chircop and Luigi Dimech, who both notched a brace, and further strikes from Jayden Cutajar and Enrico Cutajar.

The third session saw Malta continuing to pile up the goals, netting four times through Engerer, Chircop, Cutajar, and Kydon Agius putting their name on the scoresheet to push their team 16-6 ahead.

Despite the huge margin, the Maltese refuse to take their foot off the accelerator in the final quarter as they scored eight goals without reply through Dimech, Cutajar, Shailon Cutajar Casha, Max Lanzon (2), Chircop (2), and Miguel Cassar.

Malta will now be back in action on Tuesday when they face group favourites Germany.

The Germans opened the campaign with a 14-8 win over Georgia.