Malta recovered from a woeful start to put on a much-improved second-half display in 2-1 defeat to Austria in a friendly this evening.

Coming from a 6-0 drubbing against the Czech Republic in another friendly played last Friday, the Maltese team were off to a dismal opening in Klagenfurt as Marko Arnautovic profited from an Andrei Agius mistake to put Austria ahead after just four minutes.

A brilliant move produced a second goal, scored by Alessandro Schoepf, for the Euro 2016 finalists but they were unable to increase their advantage as Malta improved significantly with Luke Gambin impressing on the left wing in only his second appearance for Pietro Ghedin's team.

Malta played a lot better in the second half with Clayton Failla, who also had a good match, twice going close with diagonal shots.

With three minutes remaining, Malta got a lucky break as David Alaba, on as a substitute, committed an own goal.

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