Malta 1
Israel 3

Malta forfeited an early lead as they lost to Israel 3-1 in the opening match from the UEFA U-19 Cham-pionship mini-tournament at the Tedesco Stadium, yesterday.

Things looked promising for David Nascimento’s side when they took the lead on 15 minutes courtesy of a Jake Grech penalty after Juan Corbalan was brought down in the area by Israel defender Roy Dayan.

But Malta’s bright start was tampered two minutes later when goalkeeper Jamie Azzopardi was dismissed after he handled the ball outside the box.

With a man more on the pitch, Israel gradually came more into the picture and they turned the result in their favour with two goals from Anas Mahamid either side of half-time.

Numerical parity was restored six minutes into the second half when Idan Adneney was dismissed for a second bookable offence.

The Maltese ventured forward more often now with Matthew Guillaumier, substitute Kyrian Nwoko and Aidan Friggieri all coming close to an equaliser.

However, it was Israel who sealed the points in stoppage time when substitute Ibrahim Sfuri added a third goal.

Malta will be in action again tomorrow when playing Denmark at the Tedesco Stadium at 2.45pm.

The Danes started their group matches with a 1-1 draw against Nordic rivals Iceland, yesterday.

Malta: J. Azzopardi, D. Buckle, J. Borg, N. Pulis (53 K. Nwoko), C. Zammit (79 J. Walker), M. Guillaumier, A. Friggieri, J. Grech, Z. Brincat (19 T. Aquilina), J. Corbalan, J. Mbong.