Malta 10
Poland 6

(4-1, 4-1, 1-3, 1-1)

On paper Poland looked possibly tricky opponents when they faced Malta yesterday considering the hosts were without two of their best players, Stevie Camilleri and Niki Lanzon who retired from national team duties.

However, the visitors who might also have had some defections, were unable to keep on the same wavelength as the Maltese, especially in the first two sessions.

This disparity resulted in Malta not having to break sweat to collect their first points in Group A of the EU Nations Waterpolo Cup.

It was certainly not an impressive collective display by Karl Izzo’s team but good enough to see them through comfortably, in the process making use of all their units in the squad at some time or another.

Matthew Zammit was the catalyst of the team, scoring four goals and earning his side several man-up sets and penalty throws.

Apart from the two penalties the goals-to-extra man ratio did not make encouraging readings.

But then the cushion the Maltese had did not raise any concern against a team that were also guilty of poor man-up statistics.

An 8-2 lead midway through was trimmed down to 8-5 before Malta made it 9-5 going into the last session.

The dice had long been cast and two goals shared in the final quarter maintained the four-goal advantage.

Malta: N. Grixti, J. Gabarretta 1, P. Borg, N. Bugelli 1, M. Meli, M. Zammit 4, M. Spiteri Staines, J. Camilleri 1, B. Plumpton, A. Cousin 1, M. Rizzo 1, D. Zammit 1, R. Coleiro.

Poland: M. Diakonow, B. Kowalewski 2, G. Mos, I. Piecuch, P. Piatek, O. Szymonik, P. Michalski 1, M. Bar 1, T. Sypula 1, B. Szymanski, M. Bar, B. Troczynski 1, J. Szablowski.

Referees: M. Castrilli, A. Goncharenko.

Other results

South Africa 24
Wales 4

Switzerland 8
Scotland 6

Austria 9
Lithuania 7

Playing today
Wales vs Austria - 09.00
Scotland vs Malta - 10.15
Lithuania vs Ireland - 11.30
Denmark vs Switzerland - 12.45
South Africa vs Austria - 16.00
Poland vs Scotland - 17.15
Ireland vs Wales - 18.30
Malta vs Denmark - 19.45

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