Defeat leaves sour taste but Malta improve

Malta have been down this road many times. Wednesday's 4-1 defeat to Bulgaria elicited a sense of déjà vu as the Malta players traipsed out of a football stadium with nothing to show for their efforts despite a spirited performance.

This is not to say that Bulgaria were not worthy winners because they had a distinct edge over Malta in terms of skill, passing ability and movement, but I'm sure the majority of those who were at the Hibs Ground on Wednesday will agree with me that our team didn't deserve to lose by a three-goal margin.

Malta's performance on Wednesday represented a vast improvement on their wretched showing in their final World Cup qualifier against Portugal just over a month ago. On that occasion, our ambassadors looked bewildered and hardly mustered a decent passing move.

Although friendlies generally lack the intensity of competitive matches, the pedigree and pride of Bulgaria eliminated the risk of this friendly descending into a meaningless, slow-paced affair.

The presence of world-class players like Dimitar Berbatov, Valeri Bojinov and Stiliyan Petrov underlined Bulgaria's willingness to gain a morale-boosting result from this friendly and perhaps kickstart their rebuilding process following their heartbreaking failure to reach next year's World Cup finals.

After all, as Carmel Busuttil, the assistant national coach remarked on the eve of the match, no team likes to lose to Malta.

Not for the first time in the last decade, Malta endured a terrible start, falling behind after barely five minutes but their refusal to give in was one of the most pleasing aspects of their showing.

Having failed to score a goal in their nine 2010 World Cup Group One qualifiers, Malta at least rediscovered their scoring touch against Bulgaria as Michael Mifsud's temporary equaliser inside the opening minute of the second half rewarded his team's efforts to cancel out Valeri Bojinov's early breakthrough.

John Buttigieg may still be finding his feet as national coach but his decision to set his team out in a 4-4-2 formation certainly increased Malta's attacking threat as did the much-awaited return of Daniel Bogdanovic.

Leading Malta's attack alongside Mifsud, who equalled Busuttil's record of 23 goals, Bogdanovic underlined his value to the team with a hard-working performance. His constant marauding and exquisite technique gave Malta a presence in attack as did Mifsud's direct running.

For much of the past four years, Mifsud has been deployed as a lone striker but having another player alongside him alleviated the burden from the nippy forward who, one hopes, will resolve his club future sooner rather than later.

The switch from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-2 carried certain risks, especially defensive-wise, as it removed the added protection gained from having two holding midfielders stationed in front of the back four.

The ease with which Bulgaria were getting passes into the box and men behind the Malta defence, especially in the initial stages, indicated our team's struggles to adjust to the new system but to their credit, Malta improved as the game wore on.

For much of the opening 75 minutes, the players in Buttigieg's line-up acquitted themselves well with Jamie Pace catching the eye with a robust performance in midfield. The Valletta midfielder had failed to impress in Malta's recent outings but his display on Wednesday showed that he's back on track.

Debutant Steve Bezzina produced a solid performance while the other players also contributed to the team's brave comeback. It was a pity that Malta let their guard down in the final 15 minutes and stained an otherwise positive showing.

The team suffered a psychological and physical decline from the moment Berbatov restored Bulgaria's lead.

Wednesday's match was Malta's last outing this year. Bezzina, Edward Herrera and Paul Fenech made their first appearance for the country at senior level and more new players are likely to be promoted to the squad come January.

It remains to be seen if Buttigieg will keep faith with the few surviving members of the old guard in his new list, the likes of captain Gilbert Agius, who made his 119th appearance for Malta on Wednesday, Brian Said and goalkeeper Mario Muscat.

These players are in the twilight of their careers but they have been loyal servants to the country and the new generation can do a lot worse than look to the likes of Agius for inspiration.