Malta edge past Argentina 16-15 in thrilling encounter at World Cup Division II

The match turned out to be a thrilling contest with Milan Cirovic’s boys seemingly pulling away in the final session when opening a 16-12 lead only to concede three late goals that set up a tense finale, but the hosts did just enough to hold on to the win.

The reward of this victory is that Malta will face fellow South American side Brazil on Sunday night in the play-offs between ninth and 12th place.

Ivan Nagaev was once more Malta’s leading scorer as the Russian-born player netted no less than seven goals.

Malta were off to a brisk start as a Nagaev brace and another strike from Luigi Dimech put the team 3-0 up.

But the Argentines fought back, netting three times to end the session in parity – 3-3.

The second session was a real nail-biter, with the lead changing a number of times but it was the hosts who prevailed 5-4 to take an 8-7 lead when ends were changed.

The scorers for Malta in this session were Nagaev twice with the other goals coming from Jeremy Abela, Elijah Schembri and Dimech.

The goal feast continued in the third session with both teams sharing eight goals.

Nagaev added two more goals while Jake Cachia and Julian Valletta also hit the target as Malta led 12-11 before the start of the final session.

Goals from Benjamin Cachia, Schembri, Nagaev and Dimech pushed the team 16-12 ahead.

The Argentines tried to fight back scoring three times without reply, but came just too short from sending the match to a penalty shoot-out as Malta held on to the win.