Malta football coach Tom Saintfiet lost his third straight game in as many fixtures played under his management after Malta were outclassed by Finland 5-0, in Turkey.

After last Thursday's narrow defeat at the hands of Luxembourg, the Belgian coach opted to change the starting line-up.

Andrei Agius started as a central defender, replacing the injured Zach Muscat, Joseph Zerafa was given the nod as a left wingback while skipper Andre Schembri was playing as a second striker in support of Jean Paul Farrugia, who was given the task as target man up front. 

Finland did not take long to forge ahead when Teemu Pukki headed home from a corner after 13 minutes. 

The Nordic side continued to pile pressure on Malta and they doubled their lead on 23 minutes from Kalle Taimi whose shot from inside the eighteen went past Andrew Hogg.

Pukki made it 3-0 when the former Celtic player received the ball on the edge of the area and curved it past the Hibernians goalkeeper, to virtually wrap up the victory for his nation.

After the change of ends, Malta coach Saintfiet started to introduce new faces on the field in an attempt to pull themselves back into the game.

Despite a couple of attempts from Luke Gambin, Finland continued to dominate territory and in the latter stages of the game, they sealed the win with two other goals.

First, it was Fredrik Jensen who connected with a Joona Toivio cross to send the ball into the net and moments later, Pyry Soiri netted the fifth with a carbon copy goal as the 68th-ranked team went on to secure a large win over Malta.

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