BULGARIA-6, MALTA-0
Malta slumped to a heavy 6-0 defeat to Bulgaria in a 2014 World Cup qualifier at Sofia’s National Stadium Vasil Levski this evening.
As the scoreline clearly indicates, Malta were torn apart by the home team in a one-sided match that was played behind closed doors after Bulgaria were sanctioned by FIFA for the racist behaviour of their fans during the qualifier against Denmark.
The adverse weather conditions did nothing to help Malta’s cause as the match was played in strong winds and snow. The humiliating defeat, Malta’s fourth in a row in World Cup qualifying Group B, was certainly not the ideal way for our national team to prepare for Tuesday’s much-awaited home qualifier against Italy who, on Thursday, came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Brazil.
Bulgaria took only six minutes to open the scoring. Emil Gargorov’s lofted pass found Alexander Tonev who ran into the box from the right before hitting a low shot past Andrew Hogg, the Malta goalkeeper.
The hosts retained the initiative but had to wait until seven minutes from half-time to double their lead when Tonev cut in from the right and fired a central shot that was fumbled by Hogg.
The second half was less than two minutes old when Bulgaria made the points safe with a third goal. Georgi Milanov advanced on the left before serving the unmarked Ivelin Popov who scored from close range.
Malta suffered their fourth goal on 55 minutes when Luke Dimech tried to dribble his way out of defence only to be dispossessed by Vladimir Gadzhev who promptly passed to Gargorov who beat Hogg with a low shot.
A woeful evening for Malta continued when, midway into the second half, Bulgaria went five goals up thanks to Tonev who completed his hat-trick with a shot from outside the box.
Bulgaria added a sixth 12 minutes from time. Substitute Valeri Bozhinov’s corner fell to Nikolay Bodurov whose first cross was cleared by Rowen Muscat but his second came off the crossbar and down into the path of Ivan Ivanov who scrambled the ball home from close in.
Bulgaria
N. Mihaylov, N. Bodurov, Y. Minev (63 R. Dimitrov), I. Popov, V. Minev, I. Ivanov, G. Milanov, V. Gadzhev (70 G. Sarmov), A. Tonev, G. Iliev, E.
Gargorov (56 V. Bozhinov).
Malta
A. Hogg, J. Caruana, A. Agius (56 R. Camilleri), L. Dimech, R. Briffa, M. Mifsud, C. Failla, A. Schembri, P. Fenech (70 R. Muscat), E. Herrera, R. Fenech.
Referee Eitan Shmuelevitz (Israel).