National coach Pietro Ghedin claimed that the red card showed to Jonathan Caruana just before the hour mark was a bad mistake by the referee and his decision damaged Malta’s chances not to finish the World Cup Group F opener against Scotland empty-handed, yesterday.

At that juncture, a lively Malta team were only trailing 2-1 but Scotland rode their luck and scored from a very dubious penalty ordered by Ukraine referee Yevhen Aranovskiy.

Gordon Strachan’s men then cruised to a somewhat flattering 5-1 victory as the locals ended with nine players following Luke Gambin’s late red card for retaliation.

Jonathan Caruana (right) defends possession against Scotland at the National Stadium, last night. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

“Really, it’s not nice to talk about this match,” Ghedin told reporters.

“What can I say. That red card to Caruana was unjust. The team did well, particularly in the first half as you’ve seen but then came those two episodes early in the second half and our plans were damaged... the game was won and lost.

“We now have one month to analyse this match and see what went wrong. For sure, we’ll have to do without two key players for the away match against England.”

Scotland boss Gordon Strachan praised the mental strength of his players after a vastly-improved second-half performance.

“After being 1-0 up and playing well and losing a goal, that becomes a big moment,” he said.

“At that point we see many teams having to deal with the stress of the headlines the next day, the pressure of the fans – you see it all in front of you. Can you deal with it? They dealt with it.

“We were too wide open in the first half.

“But the players worked on that. Their ability and determination and their mental strength more than anything else impressed me.”