On paper, Malta could only hope to avoid a heavy defeat when facing Group B winners Turkey in their third match yesterday.

Our opponents, surprise winners over fancied Spain and earlier against France, have won an outright place in the quarter-finals to be played tomorrow together with the other group winners Croatia, Montenegro and Italy.

However, the Maltese deserve credit for their battling qualities.

At one point in the third session, they only trailed by three goals on 6-3 and thereafter kept on fighting bravely.

Indeed, if the lads had scored more than a meagre two-on-nine on extra-man sets the result would have surely been closer.

In the first session, Malta conceded three goals against the superior Turks who displayed sharper offensive instincts in the early part of the game.

Then, the home team started playing better and in the second session limited the adverse score to 2-3 for a half-time 2-6 deficit.

Ben Plumpton and Aleandro Mifsud had made it 1-4 and 2-5 before Sertan Cektan scored his second consecutive goal.

Zach Sciberras, in goal, again provided inspiration to his colleagues who responded when scoring three goals in the third session through Andreas Galea, Niki Paris and a second from Mifsud.

These conversions were in response to Turkey’s four for a 10-5 reading in their favour with the last session left.

Galea, one of the best Maltese players yesterday, made it 10-6 into the last session.

A seventh goal, this time from Marc Grech, was sandwiched by two conversions from Turkey for a respectable 12-7 final result.

Malta play Group D wooden spoonists Georgia in a classification match this morning.

Group B

Turkey 12
Malta 7

(3-0, 3-2, 4-3, 2-2)

Turkey: E. Ozvemir, E. Tolak 1, Y. Yordanoglu 1, A. Albayrak 2, S. Simsek 1, A. Yaman, I. Sevim, A. Destiti 1, K. Baskaya 1, S. Cektan 2, A. Ozbakis 3, K. Yildiz, A. Guclu.

Malta: J. Sciberras, M. Lanzon, A. Galea 2, M. Mifsud, M. Grech 1, B. Plumpton 1, N. Paris 1, G. Mizzi, J. Napier, M. Zammit, A. Mifsud 2, N. Bugelli, D. Spiteri.

Refs: V. Byelyevtsov, A. Brosowski.

Other results

Belarus 4
Serbia 28

(1-7, 2-9, 1-9, 0-3)

Russia 7
Croatia 8

(1-2, 1-2, 4-2, 1-2)

France 1
Spain 14

(1-2, 0-4, 0-3, 0-5)

Ukraine 9
Romania 9

(2-4, 5-3, 2-1, 0-1)

Montenegro 11
Greece 8

(2-1, 4-1, 2-3, 3-3)

Germany 6
Hungary 10

(2-5, 2-3, 0-1, 2-1)

Georgia 10
Italy 19

(1-4, 3-3, 3-6, 3-6)

Playing today
Classification matches: 9am Bela-rus vs Ukraine; 10.30am Malta vs Georgia.
Preliminary round two: Noon Russia vs Romania; 3pm Greece vs Serbia; 4.30pm Spain vs Germany; 6pm Hungary vs France.

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