Courtesy: Malta Football


FIFA Futsal tournament: Another narrow defeat for Malta

Malta once again finished on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline when they were beaten by Albania in their second match of the 2008 FIFA World Cup UEFA Group 7 first qualifying round mini-tournament at AS Hibernians Pavilion, Corradino.

As happened on Thursday, the Maltese fought back from a two-goal deficit to reduce the arrears early in the second period, after which, and despite two excellent saves from the agile goalkeeper Bjorn Vassallo, the boys in Red applied the pressure on the Albanians till the very end.

Malta had a shaky start and were a goal down after just over two minutes when Zamir Lumanas breached our defensive lines. Our players’ reaction lacked conviction at this point as their efforts to penetrate the opposing rearguard were never really dangerous. The same Albanian player made it 2-0 in the 11th minute, with the Maltese trying vainly to come into the picture.

All that changed in the second period when another set-piece similar to that against Greece the day before was excellently worked out before John Cutajar fired Timothy Ellis’s square ball past Hektor Psatha, the Albanian goalkeeper. With the visitors hanging on five personal faults and wary that another one would earn Malta a penalty, it was Albania’s turn to pull down the curtains, even if Psatha had to emulate Vassallo in the opposite goal and pull of two remarkable saves in the last minutes of the match.

Despite a second narrow defeat in a row against higher-ranked opponents, Malta again drew deserved applause from the sizeable crowd at the end of the match and coach Michael Striz and his assistant Mark Marlow must have been encouraged by another generous performance.

Malta lined up as follows: Bjorn Vassallo, Timothy Ellis, Tyron Borg, John Cutajar, Nebojsa Mijailovic, James Ciangura, Paul Bugeja, Mark Ellul Sullivan, Noel Bray, Benny Gialanze, Jeanbert Gatt, Robert Magro.

Malta will end their commitments on Sunday when they play the strong Slovenian team.

In the other game on Friday, Slovenia victually secured their qualification into the next round by beating challengers Greece by three goals to one.

Slovenia went ahead in the 2nd minute of the game through Denis Ibrisimovic but Postolos Gkaifyllias equalised for Greece in the 9th minute. Ibrisimovic scored again for Slovenia in the 13th.

Slovenia only made sure of victory thanks to a brilliant solo effort by Benjamin Melink in the dying seconds of the game.

On Thursday, showing good improvement in technical skills and the high-tempo passing game, Malta went down 2-1 to Greece, a team ranked much higher in the European and World Futsal standings.

Although the Greeks had an edge in rotational movement, they could not find a way past a well-drilled Maltese defence and when they had a pot at goal they found goalkeeper Bjorn Vassallo in inspiring form.

After both sides had efforts against the goal frame, Thomas Panou gave the visitors the lead 13 minutes into the opening period following a fine move. A set-piece enabled Greece to make it 2-0 through Morfesis Panagiotis almost two minutes after the restart.

But Michael Stritz’s team kept up their passing tempo to put pressure on their opponents for most of the second half. With almost four minutes to go Nebiosa Mijailovic planted the ball into the roof of the net after a well-engineered set- piece. The crowd went wild with the delight and that ignited our team to a last-ditch effort to save the game. However, the Greeks held out for a close victory.

This result showed that our status in Futsal has gone up significantly since we made our debut on the international stage early last year.

MALTA: Bjorn Vassallo, Benny Gialanze, John Cutajar, Timothy Ellis, Mark Ellul Sullivan, Jeanbert Gatt, Tyron Borg, Noel Bray, Paul Bugeja, Robert Magro, Roberto Micallef, Nebiosa Mijailovic.

In the first match, Slovenia beat Albania 2-0 through goals netted by Milivoje Simeunovic and Benjamin Melink.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com