Malta 7
Romania 12

(2-4, 2-5, 1-1, 2-2)

Malta were unable to avoid a fifth successive defeat at the European Championships yesterday after losing 12-7 to Romania in a positional play-off at the Kombank Arena, in Belgrade.

This was our national team’s best showing in the tournament as Karl Izzo’s men played at a par for most of the match against the Romanians, who had beaten Georgia and Germany in the group phase, particularly in the last two sessions of the match.

Goalkeeper Nicky Grixti was again outstanding with some excellent saves while skipper Niki Lanzon, Aurelien Cousin and Mark Meli were the other influential figures in defensive situations.

In attack Steve Camilleri distinguished himself yet again and despite being constantly man-marked he netted four goals.

Cousin, Lanzon and Jordan Camilleri were the other goal-getters for Malta.

Tiberiu Negrean was the match top scorer with five goals for Romania who showed their best play in the opening two sessions and led 9-4 at the break.

Izzo again saw some positives in the team notwithstanding the negative result.

“This was our best showing in the championships so far,” Izzo told Times of Malta.

“Romania surprised a few teams here but my players were never overwhelmed. Steve Camilleri was superb. He was constantly marked the whole match but showed his class with four well-taken goals.”

Skipper Lanzon and Matthew Zammit also gave their wholehearted contribution and their efforts did not go unnoticed by the coach.

“Lanzon played his best match of the tournament against Romania. He orchestrated our game to perfection while Matthew Zammit was an important figure at the centre, helping the team to win several man-up sets,” Izzo said.

“But this was another fine all-round showing from the squad.

“Remember, this is our first experience in the finals but the team is getting better with every match and now we’re looking forward to our last two fixtures.”

As a result of the upset to Romania, Malta drop to the 13th to 16th place play-offs.

Tomorrow morning, they play Slovakia who lost to Germany 16-15 yesterday.

Malta: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 1, J. Gabaretta, N. Bugelli, M. Meli, M. Zammit, S. Camilleri 4, J. Camilleri 1, J. Brownrigg, A. Cousin 1, B. Plumpton, D. Zammit, N. Grixti.

Results
9-16 places: Romania vs Malta 12-7; Slovakia vs Germany 15-16.
Quarter-finals: Spain vs Greece 2-6; Serbia vs Russia 15-5.

Playing today
9-16 places: 9.30 Turkey vs France; 11.00 Georgia vs Netherlands.
Quarter-finals: 18.45 Italy vs Montenegro; 20.15 Hungary vs Croatia.

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