Malta 0 Israel 2

The Maltese girls put on a resilient display in their home qualifier against Israel but their hopes of gaining a positive result were undone by two soft goals.

There was never any doubt as to who would gain the three points as the Israeli Girls were clearly the better team on the day to obtain their third win in Group Three of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015.

Malta tried to put up a brace fight but clearly lacked punch up front as they slumped to their sixth successive defeat.

Coach Pierre Brincat had combative midfielders Shona Zammit and Antoinette Sammut shielding the back four led by captain Rebecca D’Agostino while Rachel Cuschieri and Emma Xuereb played either side of Dorianne Theuma who played in the hole behind Ylenia Carabott.

Malta looked at ease in the 4-2-3-1 formtion as Brincat sought to provide extra cover to the defence- his side’s achilles heel in the 8-0 rout against Iceland.

The girls in red did not defend en masse and tried hard to keep possession, at times, managing to emerge from their half confidently with the ball.

On the half hour mark, Theuma caused panic in the Israel box but her effort finished over the bar. Few moments later, Cuschieri race towards the Israel goal but shot feebly into goalkeeper Merev Shamir’s hands.

Yet, Moran Friedman rose above a sleepy defednce at a 35-minute corner to head powerfully past Janice Xuereb.

Israel began the second half with great intensity, pushing forward in a bid to put the game beyond the Maltese. And on the hour mark, they went 2-0 when Daniel returned the ball to Moran Lavi who did well to stretch out a leg and poke the ball past Xuereb.

That second goal took the sting out of the game and the second half was something of a formality as Israel comfortably administered their lead.

It was a much-improved performance from Malta following their dismal displays against Switzerland and Iceland but still failed to open the scoring account as so far they have conceded 31 goals with none in favour.