Brave Malta go down fighting

Showing good improvement in technical skills and the high-tempo passing game, Malta went down 2-1 to the more-quoted Greece, in their opening match of Futsal World Cup qualifying tournament at Corradino yesterday.

Although the Greeks had an edge in rotational movement, they could not find a way past a well-drilled Maltese defence and when they had a pot at goal they found goalkeeper Bjorn Vassallo in inspiring form.

After both sides had efforts against the goal frame, Thomas Panou gave the visitors the lead 13 minutes into the opening period following a fine move. A set-piece enabled Greece to make it 2-0 through Morfesis Panagiotis almost two minutes after the restart. But Michael Stritz's team kept up their passing tempo to put pressure on their opponents for most of the second half.

With almost four minutes to go Nebiosa Mijailovic planted the ball into the roof of the net after a well-engineered set-piece.

The crowd went wild with the delight and that ignited our team to a last-ditch effort to save the game. However, the Greeks held out for a close victory.

In the opening match Slovenia beat Albania 2-0 through goals netted by Milivoje Simeunovic and Benjamin Melink.

Today's matches: 6 p.m. Malta vs Albania; 8 p.m. Greece vs Slovenia.