The Malta Independent on Sunday
No goals in dull encounter
Malta earned its second point of the Group with a scoreless draw against Andorra. It was a dull encounter with practically no shots at goal, with both goalkeepers never called in action.
It was deserved draw for the Maltese who were more offensive in their approach, but in the end Mangia's boys had nothing to show. Malta should have won this match against a side that elected to defend for long stretches leaving the initiative to the Maltese.
However, the Maltese disappointed in this sense as they failed to be dangerous in front of goal. Malta thus are still in search of their first win as we arrived at the half-way stage of this competition. Malta now travels to Riga to face Latvia in our last away match and in arguably the most difficult test.
Latvia yesterday figured in a 11 draw in Torshavn against
group leaders Faroe Islands. Coach Devis Mangia had to do without the injured Nwoko in attack and without the polished Guillaumier in midfield, the former injured and will also miss the match against Latvia, whilst Guillaumier was suspended and will be available for the Latvia game.
Coach Mangia, as expected made several changes from the experimental side that face Gibraltar in mid-week, leaving only four players from the Gibraltar match in the starting line-up.
Steve Borg, Andrei Agius and Zach Muscat formed the threeman defence, a defence protected on the flanks by Ryan Camenzuli and Joseph Mbong. Theuma and Pisani were the midfielders that linked to the forwards, with Paul Mbong preferred to Montebello.
As explained earlier goal mouth actions were practically inexistent. On 8 minutes Camenzuli crossed towards Gambin who headed over the bar. Two minutes later a series of corners in favour of Andorra with a Martinez header going wide.
On 23 minutes Malta's only shot at goal with Paul Mbong testing the Andorra custodian. In the second half a rare mishap in the Malta defence with the ball given away for Martinez who shot wide when well placed. On 70 minutes the last attempt from the Malta side with an Andrei Agius going inches wide.