Mifsud scores twice as Malta down San Marino in Serravalle

Pietro Ghedin led Malta to a second successive away win tonight when the national team beat San Marino 3-2 at the Serravalle Stadium.

Ryan Camilleri made his debut in central defence alongside Andrei Agius. John Mintoff, a late substitute, also played for the country’s senior team for the first time as he came in for Alex Muscat with only four minutes to go.

San Marino led 1-0 early on following a Manuel Mariani goal but Malta, who beat Luxembourg 2-0 in another friendly on Ghedin's debut in June, hit back with goals from Michael Mifsud and Andrei Agius before half-time.

The tempo slowed considerably after the break but Mifsud still found time to make it 3-1 after firing his country’s 36th goal in 91 matches with only a few minutes to go.

Danilo Rinaldi pulled one back from a penalty in stoppage time but there was no time left for the hosts to deny Malta from victory.

SAN MARINO: Aldo Junior Simoncini (46’ Federico Valentini), Fabio Vitaioli (63’ Damiano Vannucci), Mirko Palazzi, Michele Cervellini, Davide Simoncini, Alessandro Della Valle (46’ Cristian Brolli), Enrico Cibelli (46’ Alessandro Bianchi), Alex Gasperoni, Danilo Rinaldi, Manuel Marani (79’ Simone Bacciocchi), Matteo Vitaioli (71’ Marco Muraccini).

MALTA: Andrew Hogg, Alex Muscat (86’ John Mintoff), Gareth Sciberras, Andrei Agius, Daniel Bogdanovic, Roderick Briffa (46’ Shaun Bajada), Michael Mifsud (86’ Paul Fenech), Andrew Cohen, Andre Schembri (46’ Etienne Barbara), Ryan Camilleri (54’ Luke Dimech), Steve Borg (62’ Ryan Fenech).

Referee: Paolo Tagliavento (Italy).