Serbia 20
Malta 2
(6-0, 5-1, 4-1, 5-0)
The Maltese national team suffered their second defeat in the 2016 European Championships as yesterday they went down to hosts Serbia 20-2 in Belgrade.
Malta were always going to find the going tough when facing the world and European champions at their own backyard.
But to their credit Karl Izzo’s men produced another determined display that saw them limit the damage as much as possible against the tournament favourites.
Coming up against a Maltese team who were making their first appearance in the tournament finals, the Serbs will have fancied their chances of bagging a record win in front of a home crowd.
But the underdogs had other ideas as they managed to frustrate the favourites with some stout defending to leave the Kombank Arena with heads held high.
This performance should add belief in the Maltese ahead of tomorrow’s match against Croatia.
Slobodan Nikic was the match’s leading scorer with five goals and Steve Camilleri netted both goals for Malta.
Serbia were off to a storming start as they netted six goals without reply as the Maltese failed to threaten goalkeeper Branislav Mitrovic.
In the second quarter, Malta opted for possession tactics and, at first, they succeeded in frustrating the world champions with some sound defensive play and excellent goalkeeping from Alan Borg Cole.
In these early stages, Malta broke their duck when Matthew Zammit won a penalty that was converted by Camilleri.
But gradually the hosts continued to grow in stature and soon started scoring at regular intervals, to win the session 5-1 and surge into an 11-1 lead at the changeover.
The Serbs continued to delight the crowd with some fancy play but Izzo’s men never lost composure.
Serbia did add four goals with Malta responding with another strike from Camilleri as the hosts started the last session 15-2 ahead.
Although the match was long in their bag, the Serbs continued their pursuit of more goals against an increasingly tired Maltese side.
Grixti did pull off some fine saves but the Serbs sharpshooters again did the damage, netting five times more to wrap up victory.
Malta: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon, J. Gabaretta, N. Bugelli, M. Meli, M. Zammit, S. Camilleri 2, J. Camilleri, J. Brownrigg, A. Cousin, B. Plumpton, D. Zammit, N. Grixti.
Other results
Group A: Slovakia vs Netherlands 5-6; Montenegro vs Spain 8-8. Group B: France vs Croatia 5-20.
Playing today
Group C: 9.30am Germany vs Georgia; 18.45 Romania vs Italy.
Group D: 15.45 Turkey vs Greece; 20.15 Hungary vs Russia.