Malta lose narrowly in EURO U19 Qualifiers opener

Malta’s Under 19 team lost 1-0 to hosts Rep. of Ireland in the first of three matches from Qualifying Group 6 of the UEFA Eurpoean Under 19 Championships.  Though the home team held the upperhand for long stretches during the match, the boys in red, under the guidance of coach Wayne Attard,  held tight and were unlucky not to grab a point from their first game had it not been for what seemed to be avalid goal being disallowed on the 30th minute mark. During the match, Malta keeper Schranz, in particular, distinguished himself with a number of saves.   Republic of Ireland took the lead in the 17th minute through Stokes. In another match from this same group Switzerland comfortably beat Gibralter 8-0 The teams Republic of Ireland Malta1Bossin (GK)1Shranz (GK)2Baba (C)3Brincat3Moseley5Micallef4Kelleher7Zammit (sub 72min)5Toner8Grech6Dimaio10 Degabriele (C) (sub 80th min)7Grego-Cox11 Mbong8Charsley14 Ghio9Manning (sub 83rd min)15 J. Borg10 Stokes16 Guillaumier (sub 90th min)11 Coustrain18 C. BorgSubstitutes16 Burke (GK)12 Grech (GK)12 Mulhall2 Meli13 Heaney4 Vella14 McDonnell6 Scerri (sub 90th min)15 Hutchinson9 Xuereb (sub 72nd min)17 Hallahan13 Attard18 McGrath (sub 83rd min)17 Friggieri (sub 80th min)