Two early goals either side of Jean Borg’s dismissal dashed the Malta U-21 team’s hopes of gaining a creditable result from their friendly match against Luxembourg this evening as they suffered a heavy 5-0 defeat.

Luxembourg secured an early boost as Luca Duriatti fired them ahead after 10 minutes.

Malta’s evening took a turn for the worse when Borg was sent off for a penalty-box foul. Edvin Muratovic made no mistake from the spot to double the hosts’ advantage.

A power cut brought the first half to a premature end but it failed to disrupt Luxembourg’s momentum as, two minutes into the second half, they made it 3-0 from another penalty, scored by Ricardo Couto Pinto.

With the Maltese boys looking shell-shocked, Luxembourg added two more goals for a convincing win.

The friendly, at the Stade Albert Berchem in Kehlen, was part of the Malta U-21 team’s preparations for their opening 2019 Euro U-21 qualifier against Belgium on Monday.

Luxembourg: Valentin Rouzez, Noe Ewert, Cedric Sacras, Aldin Skenderovic, Yannis Dublin, Luca Duriatti, Jan Ostrowski, Olivier Thill, Ricardo Couto Pinto, Daniel Sinani, Edvin Muratovic.

Malta: Philip Schranz (46 Jake Galea), Jean Borg, Juan Corbalan (46 Jake Grech), Jurgen Degabriele (46 Dunstan Vella), Matthew Guillaumier (80 Nikolai Muscat), Joseph Mbong (65 Aidan Friggieri), Karl Micallef, Kyrian Nwoko (73 Michele Sansone), Zachary Scerri, Kurt Zammit, Myles Beerman (65 Jurgen Suda).

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