Second half gallant effort not enough
Malta’s gallant efforts in the second half to save the game against Finland were not enough as the Maltese Under-21 side ended its European committments with yet another defeat.
This was the ninth consecutive defeat for the squad led by Silvio Vella, with Malta finishing at the bottom of group 8, with just one point, a point obtained in Belfast against Northern Ireland in the opening match.
Against Finland Silvio Vella practically played with the same eleven that started against Ukraine a couple of days ago, with Marcus Grima in the starting line up. Vella however was forced to make the first change after only eight minutes when Gary Camilleri limped off with hamstring problems.
Finland had a fiery start, very aggressive with constant pressing on our defenders. This forced the Malta players to many mistakes in their passing as the locals hardly managed four passes in succession. Goalkeeper AlTumi was very erratic too with practically all his passes always leaving the field of play.
Malta failed to create anything worth mentioning in the first half, even though the Finnish players did not create much either, but took the lead on 18 minutes when from a Lingman corner, Bemjamin Kallman was first on the ball to head home leaving Al-Tumi staring.
Things were definitely different in the second half with the Maltese playing the ball much better, finding more space and committing less mistakes.
The Finland players were now on the defensive and the locals had a couple of good chances to level matters.
Substitute James Scicluna had the best chances. On 82 minutes he dribbled his way inside the area after a great run from midfield, but his grounder was weak, when he should have served Friggieri all alone in front of goal.
In stoppage time Malta’s best move with Andrea Zammit opening towards Zachary Grech who crossed towards Scicluna, whose flick just missed the base of the upright.