MALTA        0

TURKEY      1

Micallef 50 og

Malta U-21 suffered their fifth defeat in the UEFA Championship qualifiers when they lost to Turkey 1-0 at the Centenary Stadium.

The Turks were the better side throughout and they threatened first on 18 minutes, the Maltese were lucky not to fall behind when Turkey skipper Orkay Cinar burst into the area and picked Deniz Hummet who outmuscled his marker, but with only Jake Galea to beat, he scrambled his shot wide.

Malta finally threatened on 31 minutes when Kyrian Nwoko played in Jake Grech but the Malta skipper was anticipated by the onrushing Turkish goalkeeper Muhammed Sengezer.

It was the Turks, who however, came closest on 34 minutes when the excellent Ali Aydin stormed forward and his low cross was met by Mehmet Celik who saw his grounder hitting the upright before the Maltese cleared.

On 41 minutes, Galea dived to his left to tip away Cinar’s piledriver while a minute later the Maltese custodian showed great reflexes to keep out Kubilay Kanatsizkus’s close range header.

On the restart, the Turks continued where they left off and on 49 minutes Umut Bozok put Hummet face to face with Galea but the Malta no.1 again denied his with a fine block.

However, two minutes later, the Malta goalkeeper was left helpless when Kanatsizkus’s low drive took a wicked deflection of Karl Micallef with the ball rolling into the net.

The Turks could have piled more misery on the hosts on 56 minutes when Hummet burst into the area and picked the unmark Bozok who fired over in front of a gaping goal.

Malta: J. Galea, J. Borg, K. Zammit, K. Micallef, D. Vella (79 Z. Scerri), J. Mbong, J. Grech, K. Nwoko, J. Degabriele, J. Corbalan (85 Z. Brincat), D. Xuereb (59 J. Walker).

Turkey: M. Sengezer, M. Celik, A. Aydin, E. Ersoy (69 R. Hanli), M. Demiral, D. Kilic, O. Cinar (86 M. Okutan), H. Ozkan, K. Kanatsizkus, D. Hummet (78 C. Koca), U. Bozok.

Referee Alexandru Tean (Moldova).