D’Agostino hits late winner

Malta 1
Georgia 0

A stoppage-time goal from captain Rebecca D’Agostino gave Malta their first-ever competitive win in women’s football after they edged Georgia in their opening Group 2 match of the 2013 European Championship preliminary round.

Malta were the better side throughout yesterday’s game at the Centenary Stadium but they found it hard to breach Georgia’s defensive lines. As the match drifted into injury time, it looked as though Pierre Brincat’s girls would have to settle for a point but their efforts were rewarded with a last-gasp goal.

D’Agostino headed home at the far post two minutes into injury time following a corner by Rachel Cuschieri, one of Malta’s better performers yesterday.

Brincat hailed his team’s plucky performance against Georgia.

“I’m very satisfied,” Brincat said. “The players worked very hard to get this result. It’s important now that we keep our feet on the ground ahead of our remaining matches in this tournament.”

Faroe Islands, who lost 1-0 to Armenia yesterday despite the latter playing the entire second half with 10 players, are Malta’s next opponents tomorrow at 2 p.m. Armenia take on Georgia at 11 a.m.

Malta’s line-up: S. Costantino, K. Feasey (M. Azzopardi), N. Pace, R. D’Agostino, D. Theuma, Y. Carabott, R. Cuschieri, R. Chircop, A. Sammut, C. Vella (E. Xuereb), C. Zammit (M. Debono).