Malta 1
R. Muscat 4;
Montenegro 1
Golubovic 90;
All eyes were on Ray Farrugia as he took charge of his first home game since returning for a second spell as Malta U-21 coach.
In the pre-match news conference, Farrugia talked about his exhortations for his players to think positive as they prepared for this friendly against Montenegro yesterday.
His optimism looked to have rubbed off on his charges as they took to the pitch like a pack of hungry wolves.
Their tenacious start reaped instant rewards as Malta went ahead as early as the fourth minute, Rowen Muscat’s fine strike laying on the platform for a dominant first-half display by the home team who received a further boost when Montenegro were reduced to 10 men after 31 minutes.
Malta’s failure to convert at least two clear-cut chances in the opening half came back to haunt them after the break as the raiding Montenegro boys, aided by a string of substitutions, piled the pressure on the fading home team.
An injury-time equaliser prevented Malta from gaining a morale-boosting win ahead of their 2013 European Under-21 Championship qualifiers against Finland and Lithuania but Farrugia and his players can still take many positives from this encouraging performance.
Malta were off to a superb start as they opened the scoring very early in the match.
Leighton Grech made good progress on the right before hitting a floated pass towards the edge of the box where Triston Caruana headed the ball towards Muscat. Despite having his back to goal, the captain produced an audacious half-volley that soared above goalkeeper Pavle Velimi-rovic and into the top corner of the net.
Galvanised by that early opener, Malta continued to surge forward with intent.
A sweeping breakaway saw Miguel Ciantar run clear on the left before he passed to the steaming Grech who lifted his shot over with only the keeper to beat.
Another inviting chance came Malta’s way when Ciantar’s free-kick from the right was deflected into the path of Clyde Borg but he miscued his effort at the far post.
The brisk start by the home team, yesterday deployed in a 4-2-3-1 formation, went some way towards enhancing their self-confidence. Heeding Farrugia’s call to think positive, the Maltese youngsters had a determined look about them as they chased every ball when Montenegro began to enjoy more possession.
Goalkeeper Steve Sultana showed good reflexes as he leapt to deal with a dangerous left-wing cross from Mirko Radisic.
An excellent move by Muscat opened up the Montenegro defence as the Birkirkara starlet swivelled outside the box before delivering a through-ball to Ciantar who was dispossessed as he was about to shoot.
This came after 24 minutes. Four minutes later, Terrence Vella won a free-kick on the right and his grounder from the set-piece was parried away for a corner by Velimirovic.
Tempers threatened to boil over when Red Star’s Marko Vesovic felled Luca Martinelli with a poor tackle. Referee Marco Borg brandished the red card to dismiss Vesovic who was quickly surrounded by the home players.
Vesovic appeared to push Rowen Muscat before heading for the dressing room.
Vesovic’s dismissal inflamed the visitors who had two players cautioned for petulant fouls as Caruana threatened to heap further misery on Montenegro but his diagonal effort flew wide.
Farrugia’s boys persisted with their vibrant approach.
At times, their neat passing and movement in the final third drew gasps of admiration from the sparse crowd. On one occasion, Ciantar fired a rasping drive that was pawed away by the goalkeeper.
In the dying stages of the first half, Montenegro captain Stefan Nikolic blasted high from inside the box. At the other end, Grech almost doubled Malta’s lead but his drive was blocked by the well-placed Velimirovic.
It was Montenegro who forced the tempo in the early stages of the second half.
Ermin Seratlic’s piledriver went wide as the visitors continued to attack Malta. The woodwork saved the home side as Dejan Bogdanovic’s flick from Seratlic’s corner came off the crossbar.
With 16 minutes remaining, Montenegro had the ball in the net as Nikolic headed home from close range but the referee had already blown his whistle for a foul.
Despite the numerical disparity, Montenegro dominated possession in the second half as Malta U-21 lost their early fluency.
As the home team retreated further in their own half, Montenegro kept their foot on the pedal and their efforts were rewarded on the stroke of time when substitute Radivoje Golubovic beat Sultana with an acrobatic volley from inside the box.
Malta: S. Sultana, L. Martinelli (84 I. Grech), Z. Muscat, O. Bugeja, R. Muscat, L. Grech (90 L.J. Agius), T. Vella (87 S. Grech), T. Caruana, M. Ciantar (56 K. Farrugia), M. Gauci (73 D. Grima), C. Borg.
Montenegro: P. Velimirovic (57 N. Scekic), M. Radulovic (46 R. Golubovic), A. Sofranac (85 M. Bak-rac) Z. Tomasevic, M. Radisic (H. Pepic), A. Kaluderovic, D. Bogdanovic (57 S. Gruda), M. Vesovic, A. Kajevic (46 A. Djokovic), E. Seratlic (85 N. Mijuskovic), S. Nikolic.
Referee: Marco Borg.
Yellow cards: Tomasevic; Seratlic; Golubovic.
Red card: Vesovic 31.