Sweden put behind them the 6-0 drubbing they got at the hands of Ukraine last month and re-launched their bid to qualify from Group Two of the UEFA U-21 Championship after beating Malta 4-0 in Halmstad, yesterday.

With leaders Slovenia held to a 1-1 draw at home by Finland on Tuesday, Sweden are now one point behind and with a match in hand as the race for the top placing is now reserved between these two countries.

Malta produced a spirited performance last Friday when they lost 2-1 to Slovenia with the winning goal in Lendava only coming in stoppage time.

However, it was a different story yesterday as Ray Farrugia’s team played second best for most of the match.

Farrugia only had one change in his starting line-up yesterday as Rowen Muscat failed to shrug off an injury and his place was taken by Jean Paul Farrugia.

Sweden made their intentions clear right from kick-off and opened the score after only three minutes when Mervan Celik found space to beat keeper Steve Sultana.

The pattern did not change much but the hosts only managed to add one goal to their tally before half-time, Mikael Ishak making it 2-0 on 20 minutes.

Any hopes of a Malta fight-back were dashed soon after the restart when Owen Bugeja was red carded and Astrit Ajdarevic scoring from the ensuing penalty.

The rest was a mere formality as Sweden administered their numerical advantage wisely also going on to score again two minutes into added time thanks to Ishak.

Malta remain bottom of the group with five points. They play their remaining match, away at Ukraine, on September 6.

Malta: S. Sultana, J. Bajada, Z. Muscat, O. Bugeja, M. Scerri, T. Vella (83 S.Pisani), J.P. Farrugia (60 T. Caruana), Y. Camilleri, B. Kristensen (46 L. Grech), M. Gauci, R. Scicluna.

Referee: D. Vuckov (Croatia).