The Maltese waterpolo national team face another difficult test at the 2016 European Championships as they play Romania in a positional play-off at the Kombank Arena in Belgrade this morning.

Karl Izzo’s men come into the match with renewed optimism after a commendable showing against title-chasing Spain.

On Saturday, the Maltese produced a solid defensive cover to stop the Spaniards from notching a high-scoring victory as the two-time world champions won the match 14-3 to reach the last eight.

Izzo will be hoping his players can maintain the same high level of play as he urged his players to continue with their spirited play against Romania.

Although not ranked among the top teams on the continent, the Romanians have put up some remarkable showings in Serbia.

After losing their opener against the highly-rated Italy 11-5, Dejan Stanojevic’s team bounced back as they first defeated Georgia 12-6 before upsetting the Germany 14-13 to take second spot in Group C.

However, despite producing another fine performance yesterday, Romania lost to Greece 15-9 and will continue the championships in the lower classification matches.

Against Romania, Izzo will again bank on experienced duo Niki Lanzon and Aurelien Cousin and the scoring prowess of Steve Camilleri and Matthew Zammit as Malta are likely to obtain better results in the remaining matches.

Yesterday’s results
Italy vs Turkey 16-2; Hungary vs Georgia 14-3; Romania vs Greece 9-15; Russia vs Germany 9-6.

Quarter-final line-up

Playing today
Spain vs Greece - 18.45
Serbia vs Russia - 20.15

Tomorrow
Italy vs Montenegro - 18.45
Hungary vs Croatia - 20.15

Classification matches

Playing today
Malta vs Romania - 09.30
Slovakia vs Germany - 11.00

Tomorrow
Turkey vs France - 09.30
Georgia vs Netherlands - 11.00