The Maltese national team will be playing against Austria this morning in Odense in a classification match for fifth place after beating Czech Rep. 19-7 (4-0, 6-3, 6-0, 3-4) to avoid bottom place in the EU 8 Nations Cup.

Malta had finished the group qualifiers with a 12-10 (2-3, 4-4, 2-1, 4-2) victory over Switzerland in a morning match.

However, the effort from Karl Izzo’s team was not enough for the tournament holders to earn a place in the afternoon semis.

Against the Czechs, Malta moved to a commanding 10-3 lead at half-time and made sure of the victory after hitting six goals without reply past their eastern European opponents in the third session.

In this match, Jerome Ga-barretta scored six times for Malta and Kai Dowling chipped in with a hat-trick.

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