Malta end commitments with a tough defeat

Waterpolo - Juniors European Championships

Malta Slovakia (0-6), (1-3), (2-4), (2-3) 5 16

Another tough defeat for the Junior National team as they ended their European Championship finishing in 16th place after losing in a tough fashion against Slovakia 16-5. A game that was dominated from Slovakia since the first few minutes, and the difference between both teams was evident.

Slovakia already made a huge step towards the win after the first eight minutes scoring six consecutive goals with no reply from the Maltese youngsters. They were controlling the game with no difficulty, with Malta managing to score their first goal from Ken Erdogan, responding to Tomas Baco’s goal, as Slovakia scored another two goals in the second part of the session to finish the second period 9-1.

The game lost its rhythm but Slovakia stayed in control, with Karl Izzo’s boys trying to limit the damage, but Slovakia scored another three goals from Jakub Barla, Branislav Balogh and Matej Caraj. Ken Erdogan reduced the margin, and Mattias Ortoleva responded to Peter Gaszi’s goal.

The last session was kept on the same wavelength Orsula and Gaszi managed to widen the gap for Slovakia, while Malta responded twice from Ken Erdogan and Jacob Sciberras, as Matej Caraj sealed the win with the final goal at the end of the game.

Malta: T. Micallef, J. Culic, K. Erdogan (3), J. Sciberras (1), B. Cachia, T. Said, M. Ortoleva (1), K. Tanti, M. Tabone, N. Zammit, L. Galea, J. Muscat, M. Xerri

Slovakia: S. Hrehor, J. Barla (1), P. Gazsi (3), F. Hannel, M. Uradnik, B. Balogh (1), N. Kozmer, T. Baco (1), J. Orsula (2), M. Molnar (2), M. Caraj (5), A. Krajcik (1), R. Cech

Referees: Mihai Balanescu (Romania), Erkan Turkkan (Turkey)