Malta 7 Romania 12

(2-4, 2-5, 1-1, 2-2)

The Maltese waterpolo national team produced a sprightly performance at the European Championships but still was not enough to avoid a 12-7 defeat to Romania in the classification matches in Belgrade.

Karl Izzo’s men were on their game right from the outset and managed to keep the pace with their more-quoted opponents for much of the match and could have run their opponents closer had they been more efficient in front of goal.

The only tinge in yesterday’s match was the team’s performance in the second session as their lax defending enabled the Romanians to open a four-goal cushion lead that provided them with a solid platform to administer their advantage in the final two sessions.

Romania’s Tiberiu Negrean was the match leading scorer with five goals.

Steve Camilleri was Malta’s leading scorer with four goals with Niki Lanzon, Aurelien Cousin and Jordan Camilleri also on the scoresheet for Izzo’s team.

Malta will now drop to the positional play-offs for the ninth and 12th places and will face the loser of the match between Slovakia and Germany on Wednesday.

 

 

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