Luxembourg 0 Malta 2

Pietro Ghedin enjoyed an excellent (second) debut as Malta coach as Michael Mifsud scored a brace in a 2-0 victory over Luxembourg in a friendly match at the Josey Barthel Stadium this evening.

Urged on by a sizable number of flag-waving Maltese fans who work in Luxembourg, Ghedin's men showed the better ideas from the start and fully deserved their victory over a Luxembourg side who played the entire second half with 10 men following the dismissal of captain Mario Mutsch for two yellow cards.

Malta took the lead on 10 minutes. It was a well-worked move as midfielder Roderick Briffa switched the ball to Daniel Bogdanovic on the right. The Notts County forward supplied a through-pass to the energetic Mifsud who pulled clear of his markers before firing the ball home.

Ghedin's men remained on top for most of the first half, going close to increasing their advantage with efforts from Andre Schembri and Bogdanovic.

Despite being a man down, Luxembourg made a reaction in the early stages of the second half but Malta regained control before applying the killer touch 10 minutes from time.

Schembri lobbed the ball over a defender to surge clear on the right before passing to Bogdanovic who crossed towards the centre and Mifsud directed the ball home with his chest for his 34th goal in a Malta shirt.

Ghedin, who had a previous spell as Malta coach in the mid-nineties, started the game with the following formation: Andrew Hogg, Jonathan Caruana, Garet Sciberras, Andrei Agius, Alex Muscat, Daniel Bogdanovic, Roderick Briffa, Michael Mifsud, Andrew Cohen, Clayton Failla, Andre Schembri.