In the wake of the Euro Cham-pionship qualifying round (phase two) group matches, played at the National Pool last week, Malta waterpolo coach Karl Izzo said he was very satisfied with the effort put in by the team and reiterated that the bonding spirit among the players was excellent with many of them performing as well as was expected.

Izzo lamented the loss of three points at the hands of Belarus which could prove costly.

“It was a very bad game we played against Belarus as we had expected to bag the three points,” Izzo said.

“Also, the 10-8 defeat against Ukraine was tempered by episo-des. On 4-1 we were denied a clear penalty. We missed the subsequent man-up and instead suffered a goal. We also missed a penalty late in that game.

“All in all, however, we showed that Malta can play nearly at par against all teams in this category, given the good showing against Israel and Georgia.”

Referring to the third qualifying tournament in November, Izzo said that after all Malta are still in with an outside chance to qualify for the semi-finals stage.

“We are four points behind Great Britain and most probably we will face them in November when 15 points will be at stake,” he said.

Great Britain are currently sixth in the provisional standings with 17 points. Malta are ninth on 13 points.

The top six teams at the end of phase three move into the next stage of the championship.