Hats off to Malta’s 13 heroes who have made history when they clinched a berth in the Euro Championship finals to be held in January in Belgrade where the top 16 nations will be engaged in sporting battle for the top continental honour.
The jubilation among those present at the National Pool, players, team officials and supporters signified a historical feat which is the culmination of a golden era for Maltese waterpolo.
Malta had just beaten Poland in what was billed a crunch match with a slot in Belgrade at stake.
Coach Karl Izzo’s prediction that the clash would probably be a 50-50 affair went pleasantly off the mark as his boys turned on the steam and provided superb fare to annihilate opponents whose pedigree could not be ignored.
“I can’t be happier as our objective has been reached,” Izzo said.
“We all worked very hard and for this I have to thank all the lads for their collective spirit and determination.”
Indeed, it was a test which Malta passed with flying colours as the team took up the driving seat from the word go, only to keep pegging until they could afford to go for some jugular fare which had their opponents stunned.
Steve Camilleri, Malta’s perennial top-scorer, again led the team’s charts with four goals.
After his brief appearance in the second quarter in Friday’s 20-8 win over Switzerland, he was in the water to steady the ship and played throughout.
His colleagues responded magnificently and were unper-turbed when the other heavy-weight, Matthew Zammit, was excluded with substitution early in the second session.
Jerome Gabarretta, scorer of three goals, Michele Stellini who netted two and captain Niki Lanzon amply made up for Zammit’s absence.
So did all the others, including young goalkeeper Nicholas Grixti who was handed the baton and negotiated it successfuly through the whole 32 minutes.
Poland, were never in the game and the most they could do was to close the gap in the latter sessions, never mind redressing the imbalance which twice had the Maltese opening an eight-goal advantage in the third part of the game.
By then Malta had long been in the driving seat. For the record the other goalscorers were Lanzon, Matthew and Dino Zammit and Clint Mercieca.
The match, watched by a good crowd, was marked by numerous turnovers which mostly had the visitors conceding the attacker fouls.
Summary
Poland 8
Malta 13
(0-3, 2-5, 3-3, 3-2)
POLAND: M. Diakonow, P. Radzinski, J. Bednarek, M Andruszkiewics 2, B. Kowalewski 3, O. Szymonik, P. Michalski 1, M. Bar, G. Mos, B. Szymanski, B. Luczak, W. Leszek 2, J. Szablowski.
MALTA: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 1, J. Gabarretta 3, M. Stellini 2, M. Meli, M. Zammit 1, S. Camilleri 4, J. Camilleri, E. Aquilina, A. Cousin, C. Mercieca 1, D. Zammit 1, N. Grixti.
Refs: S. Mahmet (Turkey), I. Kikalishvili (Georgia).
Other result: Germany 21 Switzerland 0 (4-0, 7-0, 6-0, 4-0).
Standings (over two tournaments): Germany 15 points; Malta 9; Poland 6; Switzerland 0.
Playing today
National Pool: 9am Poland vs Switzerland; 10.15 Germany vs Malta.