Malta suffer heavy defeat

Malta 0
Spain 13

The Maltese ladies' hearts were left broken by Spain in their opening World Cup qualifier yesterday as the visitors hit 13 goals past Pierre Brincat's team in a display that clearly reflected the huge gulf between the two sides.

Spain were 8-0 up at half-time and went on to inflict on Malta their biggest-ever home defeat.

Striker Adriana Santamaria Martin top-scored for the Spaniards with four goals. Midfielder Sonia Bermudez and Ana Romero followed her with a hat-trick apiece while winger Veronica Boquete weighed in with two goals as the rout was completed with a goal from Silvia Meseguer.

It was always going to be a huge mountain to climb for Malta, facing a Spanish team ranked eighth in the world.

The Spanish side, coached by Ignacio Quereda, had Boquete as their outstanding performer as she was a constant threat for the Maltese defence while Ana Romero was a real menace down the left flank.

Meseguer put Spain ahead after only six minutes. The Maltese women looked rattled and Martin opened her account with a beautiful lob over the onrushing Constantino after 12 minutes.

Malta's heads went down and Martin was on target again on 19 minutes as she linked up well with Romero to finish off from the edge of the box.

However, it was Spain's five-goal burst in a 12-minute spell in the run-up to half-time that killed off Malta. Sonia Bermudez hit the target three times with Martin and Romero adding to Malta's woes.

More woes were in store for Malta, as the Spaniards kept up the tempo after the interval and turned on the style to fire in five more goals.

Five minutes after the break, the unmarked Martin hit home a close-range shot for her fourth goal of the match and Boquette struck again one minute later with a low shot.

Martin turned provider on 67 minutes as she combined brilliantly with Romero in a quick one-two, giving her time and space to steer the ball past Costantino.

On 74 minutes Spain were awarded a penalty and Costantino pushed away Martin's shot from the spot but from the rebound Boquete thumped the ball home.

Malta's first glimpse of goal came on 89 minutes when the ball broke to Rachel Cushieri but the Birkirkara midfielder's shot was well saved by Spain's Anihoa Tirapu de Goni.

Spain completed the rout two minutes into stoppge time when Romero scored goal no. 13.

It was a cruel wake-up call for the Malta girls but the defeat should not take away from their achievements of late when they beat Latvia 4-0 and Luxembourg 1-0.

Malta: S. Costantino, R. Chircop, C. Fenech (70'Zammit), N. Pace, M. Azzopardi (42'Parnis), D. Theuma, M. Debono, R. D'Agostino, R. Cuschieri, Y. Carabott, E. Xuereb (79'G. Zahra).

Spain: A. Tirapu, M. Nicolau, R. Garcia, M. Torrejon, S.Vesga (46'Escribano), S.Vilanova, S. Bermudez (46'Perez), S. Meseguer (74'Pena), V.Boquete, A.Martin, A. Romero.

Referee: S. Spinelli (Italia).

Other results: Armenia vs Finland 0-4; Slovakia vs Macedonia 9-0; Poland vs Ukraine 4-1; Bosnia vs Hungary 0-2; Switzerland vs Ireland 2-0; Slovenia vs Italy 0-8.