Croatia 22

Malta 2
(7-1, 5-1, 5-0, 5-0)

The Malta waterpolo national team suffered a heavy defeat to Croatia in their final Group B match at the European Championships as the Olympic champions cantered to a 22-2 victory.

As the scoreline clearly shows, the Croatians were in a class of their own as their lightning attacking play and their high percentage of shots from the distance exposed all the frailties in the Maltese defensive set up.

The match was all but settled by the end of the second session when the Croatians raced to a commanding 12-2 lead and from then on they simply administered the proceedings, scoring at regular intervals and at the same time managing two clean sheets in the next two quarters to wrap up a comprehensive victory.

Croatia’s Andro Buslje and Sandro Sukno finished as the game’s leading scorers with four goals apiece. Jerome Gabaretta and Mark Meli were on the mark for Malta.

Malta finished bottom of the group and will now proceed to the Last 16 face when they face another mammoth task when on Saturday they face the Group B winners.

At present Spain and Montenegro are sharing top spot in Group ahead of tomorrow’s final matches.

Croatia: J. Pavic, D. Buric 2, A. Petkovic 1, L. Loncar 1, M. Jokovic, L. Bukic 3, A. Vukicevic 2, A. Buslje 4, AS. Sukno 4, B. Pavlovic, A. Setka 3, M. Macan 2, M. Bijac.
Malta: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon, J. Gabaretta 1, N. Bugelli, M. Meli, M. Zammit, S. Camilleri, J. Camilleri, J. Brownrigg, A. Cousin, B. Plumpton, D. Zammit, N. Grixti.
Referees: G. Kun (Hungary), S. Naumov (Russia).