SLOVAKIA 11

MALTA 20

(4-4, 4-7, 1-3, 2-6)

The Malta waterpolo national team produced an emphatic performance to brush aside Slovakia 20-11 and put themselves well on course to finish 13th at the European Championship finals in Belgrade.

It was the right response from Milan Cirovic’s men, who in the previous 24 hours had been embroiled in a match-fixing scandal, as a report on the Times of Malta said that a number of players were being investigated for allegedly having placed bets on the goal difference of Malta’s opening game against Montenegro last Saturday.

But the players left that controversy firmly behind them and produced their best performance of the championship to outclass Slovakia and now just need beat Slovenia on Sunday to secure a 13th-place finish.

“This was without doubt Malta’s best performance in a European Championship match,” ASA president Karl Izzo told the Times of Malta.

“After all the speculation and media reports that appeared in the build-up to the match, the players really showed a lot of character to completely outclass a quality side like Slovakia.

“We played with a lot of determination, our defence was simply outstanding while in attack we were very efficient.

“It’s a great result and a first-ever win against Slovakia in a European Championship, and that shows that we are starting to close the gap with the teams who are one step ahead of us.

“Now it’s important to remain focused and we finish the job against Slovenia on Sunday, where a win or a draw would see us finish in 13th place, which is our best ever result in a European Championship.”

Stevie Camilleri produced a captain’s display scoring six goals, while Alec Fenech grabbed five and Liam Galea found the target four times. The other scorers for Malta were Elijah Schembri, who notched a brace, Nikolai Zammit, Ivan Nagaev and Ben Plumpton.

The first session turned out to be a real show of character for the national team.

Slovakia were off to a blistering start as they surged into a two-goal lead through Adam Furman and Maros Tkac.

Stevie Camilleri pulled one back from the penalty spot but the Slovaks soon restored their two-goal advantage through Samuel Bala.

Camilleri grabbed his second of the match but the Slovaks hit back through Marco Mihal.

The Maltese clicked into gear towards the end of the session as they started to defend better, and their efforts were rewarded through fine goals from Alec Fenech and Nikolai Zammit that pulled them level at four-all.

The Maltese players were now playing in full flow and Camilleri converted a man-up set before Ivan Nagaev scored from a penalty to put the team 6-4 ahead.

Here, the game became tit for tat as goals from Elijah Schembri, Liam Galea and Fenech put the team 9-6 ahead.

The Slovaks could not halt Malta’s momentum as further goals from Camilleri and Fenech helped the team to change ends 11-8 ahead.

A brilliant long-range strike from Liam Galea further extended Malta’s lead.

Goals dried out in this session, but the Maltese players continued to defend well given very few easy opportunities for the Slovaks to try and bridge the gap.

With less than three minutes to the end of the session, Nagaev initiated a quick transition before setting up Galea who fired home – 13-8.

An Alec Fenech penalty conversion further cemented Malta’s dominance who started the final session 14-9 ahead.

Liam Galea did very well in the early seconds of the fourth session to win a penalty, from which Camilleri extended Malta’s lead to six goals – 16-9.

There was only one team in the pool as Malta continued to rack up the goals as further nettings from Elijah Schembri, Ben Plumpton, and Camilleri put Malta nine goals clear -18-9.

The Slovaks seemed to have thrown in the towel, and Liam Galea did well conclude a fine move to make it 19-9.

Alec Fenech extended the lead to ten goals, and although the Slovaks pulled two goals back late on through Matej Caraj and Tomas Bielik the match had long been won by Cirovic’s men.