Malta beats S. Arabia and faces Iran once again in today’s final

Waterpolo

Malta 18 Saudi Arabia 7 (4-2), (4-1), (4-2), (6-2)

Malta will face Iran today in the final of the FINA Development Trophy after a resounding win against Saudi Arabia in the semi-final.

This was a brave performance by the Maltese players who were never in trouble of losing the game, having the better of their opponents in all sessions of the game. In the final, they will try to avenge the 12-8 loss against Iran in the group stages.

Saudi Arabia held on for almost the first session, but two late goals in the session gave Malta a double advantage.

From then onwards, it was a one sided game as Malta dictated play and unsurprisingly continued to widen the gap as they finished the second session with a clear five-goal advantage.

The third session was quite similar to the first one, with the main difference being that Malta had a comfortable advantage.

Jerome Gabarretta made it 135 in the beginning of the last session, as Malta scored four goals in the space of two minutes in the middle of the last session to round up the win.

Malta: N. Grixti, J. Gabarretta (2), E. Aquilina, J. Sciberras (2), A. Galea, M. Zammit (1), S. Camilleri (1), J. Camilleri (4), N. Paris (1), A. Cousin (3), Z. Mizzi, D. Zammit (4), J. Tanti

Saudi Arabia: H. Jazany, Y. Alzahrani (1), M. Gamal (3), M. Mokhtar, N. Almuntashiri, A. Alaryani (2), H. Kalfoot, K. Al- harbi, H. Olayan, B. Aldaughter (1), H. Alnefaiei, M. Alhelal, O. Shavahili

Referees: Michel Zwart (Olanda), Jeremy Cheng (Singapore)

Results

Perù v Tunisia ........................6-8 Austria v Singapore ..............9-8 Uruguay v Iran ....................7-15 Malta v Saudi Arabia ..........18-7

Today’s fixtures

Perù v Singapore 9.30am Tunisia v Austria 10.50am S. Arabia v Uruguay 12.10pm Malta v Iran 1.30pm