Aidan Friggieri evading the challenge of an Iceland opponent at the Hibernians Stadium, yesterday. Photo: Darrin Zammit LupiAidan Friggieri evading the challenge of an Iceland opponent at the Hibernians Stadium, yesterday. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

A late penalty shattered Malta’s hopes of taking a point from their final UEFA U-19 Championship qualifier as Iceland emerged 1-0 winners at the Hibernians Stadium yesterday.

Captain Albert Gudmundsson steered his spot-kick past goalkeeper Jamie Azzopardi five minutes from time after defender Daniel Buckle was adjudged to have pushed substitute Grétar Snaer Gunnarsson inside the box.

It was a cruel blow for the Maltese who had been more than a match for Iceland despite being without two key players, captain Jake Grech and Juan Corbalan, both suspended.

They had been unlucky not to open the scoring a few minutes earlier as Matthew Guillaumier, the game’s stand-out performer, produced a rising shot from outside the box only to be denied by the crossbar.

Zach Brincat, who had replaced the injured Kyrian Nwoko after just 13 minutes, also had an inviting chance in the second half but his grounder was stopped by the Iceland goalkeeper.

Aidan Friggieri had also gone close in the opening half but his shot was deflected wide of the far post.

With the hosts going all out in search of an equaliser in the dying stages, Iceland threatened to extend their lead but Gunnarsson blasted over after his initial effort rolled against a post.

Although the Maltese youngsters were visibly dejected at the final whistle after succumbing to their third consecutive defeat, coach David de Sousa Nascimento took a lot of positives from the team’s showing yesterday.

“It is an unlucky defeat for us but you could see the improvement in the team,” he said.

“We only started working together three months ago, trying to change our style a bit and the mentality as we’ve been encouraging our boys not to look up to their opponents.

“When you begin working on something different, you need time but I was pleased to see my team do a lot of things we’ve been practising in training.

“We tried to build play from the back. The next step is to conclude the chances we create.”

In light of Iceland’s meteoric rise in world football over the past decade, this clash was an ideal opportunity to gauge how our current U-19 side would measure up to their Nordic peers.

At senior level, Iceland are well ahead but, judging by yesterday’s game, the two countries are more or less on a par at U-19 level.

“I think we were better than Iceland,” De Sousa Nascimento said.

“Although we had more possession, they probably had one or two chances more than us. But this performance should give our boys more confidence.”

Four months on from his ap-pointment, the Portugal-born De Sousa Nascimento, who has spent most of his coaching career in the Netherlands, believes Maltese sides at youth level are being undermined by lack of continuity.

“We need to be more consistent,” he said.

“There have been moments in this tournament when our team did some really good things but the problem is that we didn’t do it from the first until the last minute.”

Despite the win , Iceland failed to qualify for the Elite Round as they finished third on four points, one point behind Denmark who secured their passage to the next stage after holding group winners Israel to a 0-0 draw yesterday.

Malta formation: J. Azzopardi, D. Buckle, J. Borg, N. Pulis, C. Zammit, M. Guillaumier, A. Friggieri, J. Mbong, N. Tabone, D. Xuereb (82 J. Walker), K. Nwoko (13 Z. Brincat).

Final standings: Israel 7 points; Denmark 5; Iceland 4; Malta 0.

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