Spain 14; Malta 3
(3-1, 3-0, 7-1, 1-1)

The Maltese waterpolo national team showed remarkable improvement but was still not enough to avoid a 14-3 defeat to Spain in a Last 16 tie at the European Championships in Belgrade.

It was a brave showing from the Maltese who put behind them their poor showing in the 22-2 defeat to Croatia last Thursday with a more accomplished performance which saw them frustrate the highly-rated Spaniards with a sound defensive display.

The only blemish in the display was a lacklustre third-session showing where the team conceded seven goals to one but then immediately made up for it in the last session which ended ina 1-1 draw.

Niki Lanzon, Aurelien Cousin and Matthew Zammit were the scorers for Malta yesterday.

Malta will now be in action on Monday when they face the loser of the Last 16 tie between Greece and Romania in the positional play-offs.

Malta: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 1, J. Gabaretta, N. Bugelli, M. Meli, M. Zammit, S. Camilleri, J. Camilleri, J. Brownrigg, A. Cousin 1, B. Plumpton, D. Zammit, N. Grixti.
Spain: I. Aguilar, A. Munarriz, G. Lopez Escribano, M. Roca 1, G. Molina 1, M. Minguell 2, B. Sziranyi 1, A. Espanol 3, R. Tahull 3, F. Fernandez, B. Mallarach 3, G. Echenique, D. Lopez Pinedo.
Referees: Radoslaw Koryzna (Poland), M. Koganov (Azerbaijan).