Costly mistakes punish Miller's boys

Malta 0
Finland 4

Malta U-21 crashed to a disappointing 4-0 defeat at the hands of a superior Finland in a friendly at the Hibs Ground yesterday.

It was not the best of displays from Mark Miller's team who were punished for their lack of cohesive play as the Finns struck four goals without reply.

One cannot criticise the Maltese for not trying but they looked a disjointed lot for most of the match. Poor distribution of the ball, coupled with some sloppy defending, summarises Malta's outing yesterday as the hosts looked second best to modest opponents.

The only positives Miller can derive were the performances of winger Dyson Falzon and midfielder Tyrone Farrugia. They were the only players who seemed good enough to match their opponents.

Miller was forced to make a last-minute change to his squad after goalkeeper Miguel Montfort was ruled out after suffering a broken nose in training. His place in goal was handed to Michael Falzon who made his debut on his very first call-up. Henry Bonello was reserve keeper as Ian Zammit was declared fit to start as a lone striker.

An interested spectator yesterday was Keith Armstrong. The former Haka coach, now with HJK Helsinki, is currently in Malta to have a closer look at Jarrko Hurme. Armstrong wants to sign the Udinese right-back ahead of the Finland soccer season that starts in April.

Malta made a bright start and in the third minute, Falzon's inswinging corner surprised the Finland defence but Zammit failed to make the most of the situation and shot wide from a few metres out.

Michael Falzon was forced to make his first save of the afternoon on 15 minutes when he tipped away a Jani Virtanen grounder.

But two minutes later the Malta goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent the visitors from taking the lead. Virtanen's perfect throughball freed Miki Sipilinen who scored with an exquisite lob.

The Maltese came close to drawing level a minute later when Edward Herrera's long ball released Zammit who chipped over goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola but Jonas Portin was alert to clear the danger.

The Maltese were growing in stature but for all their possession they were being let down by their poor passing in the final third.

Miller was forced to make his first change six minutes from half-time when Steve Bezzina left the pitch with an eye injury.

The Maltese were lucky not to fall two goals behind before the interval when Hamalainen failed to connect in front of a gaping goal.

Miller replaced Michael Falzon with Bonello at the start of the second half. The latter had to pick the ball from the net after only two minutes of play.

Finland won a corner, taken by Virtanen, and defender Tim Sparv was the quickest to react in the Malta box and head the ball home.

The Maltese continued to work hard to carve openings but their efforts were being hampered by a series of miscued passed in front of the Finland defensive line.

The closest Malta came to pulling a goal back was on 72 minutes when Paul Fenech's overhead kick from close in finished just over.

But, Finland wrapped up the match with two quick goals in the final 15 minutes. The clock marked 75 minutes when a mix-up in the Malta defence enabled Sipilinen to fire a low drive into the bottom corner.

Some appalling defending in Bonello's box handed Finland a fourth goal two minutes later. The Malta keeper charged out of goal to intercept Gustafsson's pass but missed the ball and substitute Eetu Muinone had an easy job to tap home his side's fourth goal.

Malta: M. Falzon (H. Bonello), E. Herrera, C. Failla, J. Caruana, S. Bezzina (T. Farrugia), P. Fenech, M. Bartolo (R. Fenech), A. Agius, I. Zammit (A. Scerri), E. Agius, D. Falzon.

Finland: A. Jaakkola, J. Aho (J. Raitala), J. Hurme, J. Portin (V. Jalasto), J. Gustafsson, T. Sparv, K. Hamalainen (E. Muinonen), M. Hetemaj (T. Turunen), M. Sipilinen (E. Peltonen), R. Eremenko, J. Virtanen (J. Tursas).

Referee: Chris Lautier.

Scorers: Sipilinen 17, 75; Sparv 47; Muinonen 77.

Yellow Cards: Eremenko, Failla, Hurme.