Malta Under-18 keep Republic Ireland on goalless draw

UNDER-18 FRIENDLY07.12.2021Tony Bezzina Stadium, PaolaMALTA…0REP.IRELAND…0The Maltese Under-18 side, preparing for the UEFA 2023 Under-19 Championships in Malta, obtained a prestigious goalless draw against their more quoted counterparts of the Republic of Ireland.  Although the visitors held much of the initiative throughout the match, Malta also had their moments and had a fair share of ball possession. To be fair, the woodwork saved Malta from defeat, but the overall performance was encouraging. It is to mention that the group of players are in the very beginning of a long road towards the final tournament, but today the team showed that they can rise to the occasion against stronger opposition. It was another opportunity for coach Alessandro Zinnari to test a few new players and tactics. Compared with the last Estonia friendly in November, the Italian mentor opted to start with Zack Barbara and Andrew Borg in midfield, while Ivin Farrugia started in the heart of the defence, after being promoted from the Malta Under-17 squad .Later on in the match, Zinnari gave debuts to Mattias Ellul, Gabriel Diego Farrugia and USA based Sebastian Azzopardi.The match was played in strong winds, which highly effected play for both sides The first half had little goalmouth action, with both sides trying to find their feet in order to adapt to the strong wind. On 15 minutes, Andrew Borg had an attempt at goal, but his shot was saved without much difficulty by Conor Walsh, the Irish goalkeeper. On 25 minutes, a header by Thomas Lonergan sailed over the crossbar after a Justin Ferizaj corner.  The Irish created several goalscoring opportunities in the second half. Seven minutes after the break, Beppe Mangion had to make a save on a close-range Lonergan attempt, with the Maltese defence clearing the danger. Just after the hour, Malta escaped when Sean Grehan’s header from a corner action ended up against the post.On the 70 minutes mark, Ferizaj’s close range attempt hit the crossbar and eight minutes later, the woodwork saved the hosts once more, this time from a John Ryan attempt. Lonergan scored from the rebound, but was flagged for off-side. Moments later, Mangion made a brilliant save from a Jamie Mullins grounder.With two minutes regular time left, Brooklyn Borg’s grounder after a wonderful Malta attack hit the site-netting, the best opportunity for the hosts in the match.  Malta host the Republic of Ireland again on Thursday morning at the same venue, kick off 11 a.m. Malta:  Beppe Mangion, Ivin Farrugia, Miguel Azzopardi (Mattias Ellul 72), Andrew Borg, Matteo Gambin, Jake Micallef, Jake Vassallo (Nathan Cope 80), Lucas Caruana, Zack Barbara (Sebastian Azzopardi 57), Shaisen Attard (Gabriel Diego Farrugia 72), Nathan Cross (Brooklyn Borg 57).Coach: Alessandro Zinnari Rep. Ireland: Conor Walsh, Sam Curtis, James Abankwah, Alex Murphy, Sean Grehan, Oisin Gallagher (Mark O’Mahoney 86), Jamie Mullins, Justin Ferizaj, Thomas Lonergan, Jack O’Reilly (John Ryan 69), Dara McGuinness.Coach: Colin O’Brien Referee:  Alex Johnson (Malta) Yellow cards: A.Borg (M), Abankwah (RI)