Malta captain Michael Mifsud walks past coach Pietro Ghedin after his sending off in the first half.

Pietro Ghedin

(Malta coach)

“I’m proud of my players... they gave their all tonight and deserved the warm applause of the crowd at the end of the match.

“Michael Mifsud’s dismissal was a 50/50 challenge. I have my doubts on the red card... actually I did not think it was a foul at all.

“But this is football and we have to accept the referee’s decision.

“Now we must look ahead. Our next match is against Bulgaria where I hope to recover our in-jured players. So, hopefully we can continue to build on this en-couraging performance.”

Antonio Conte

(Italy coach)

“We played against a Maltese team that had one sole intention... that of stopping us from adopting our game. In the end, however, we still achieved our goal of taking the three points to make it four wins in a row now.

“True, we won managed a 1-0 win but luck was not on our part today as we hit the woodwork four times besides failing to put in some clear-cut scoring chances.

“The next match is against our direct rivals in the group, Croatia, next month. That will be an ideal test to gauge our potential.”

Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan sends off Michael Mifsud (second right, partly hidden). Photos: Matthew Mirabelli

Michael Mifsud

(Malta captain)

“I am gutted with what happened today. I didn’t commit a foul let alone a red card offence.

“Clearly, I beat Florenzi to the ball but the referee thought other-wise and I ended up out of a match that I was so keen to play in.

“But I must commend the performance of my team-mates who produced a great match.

“All our players worked hard for each other and that made a big difference from our performance against Norway.

“Italy are a great side but we made it difficult for them and I think the fans should be proud of our efforts tonight.”

Graziano Pelle

(Italy striker)

“I’m pleased to have scored the winning goal but overall it was not a match I enjoyed playing really.

“I come from the English Premier League where attacking football is the order of the day but here Malta adopted a negative approach where they defended throughout the entire 90 minutes and closed all gaps to their goal.

“I’m sure the Maltese fans will be disappointed that their team did not try to attack and put us under some pressure.

“But we are pleased with the three points that keep us at the top of the group.”

Group H standings

Next fixtures
November 16: Azerbaijan vs Norway; Bulgaria vs Malta; Italy vs Croatia.