Malta suffers tough defeat in UEFA U21 European Championship Qualifying opener

UEFA EUROPEAN U21 CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIER
09.09.2025
Centenary Stadium, Ta’ Qali

MALTA...0
GREECE...5
(HT 0-2)

14’ Stavros Pnevmonidis (GRE), 45+2’ Georgios Koutsias (GRE), 54’ Georgios Koutsias (GRE), 63’ Stavros Pnevmonidis (GRE), 90’ Dimitris Rallis (GRE)

The Malta Under-21 National Team suffered a tough 5-0 defeat on the opening UEFA U21 European Championship Qualifying match against Greece on Tuesday evening.

Greece started on the front foot, pressing Malta in the opening few minutes, with Georgios Koutsias having the first shot after a turn in the penalty area, but his effort went well wide.

Malta grew into the game, pushing Greece back, while also becoming more confident on the ball.

However, Greece took the lead in the 14th minute, after a lobbed pass was not dealt with by the Malta defence, and the ball fell to Stavros Pnevmonidis, who fired a strike into the back of the net.

Malta tightened up at the back for the rest of the half, and while Greece did not create plenty of opportunities during the opening 45 minutes, they still doubled their lead in stoppage time, after a loose pass from Luca Camilleri was presented to Georgios Koutsias, who lobbed it into the empty net.

As a result, the score at half-time was 2-0 to Greece.

Coach Davide Mazzotta made two substitutions at the break, bringing on Sean Gatt and Jake Grech, two attacking changes, and it immediately had an impact, as Malta looked to take the game to Greece, getting more on the ball than they did in the first-half.

Despite that, Greece found space on the counter, and Koutsias made a darting run at the heart of the Maltese backline, running through on goal, before stroking the ball past Camilleri to make it 3-0.

Greece had an opportunity to increase the scoreline in the 56th minute, when a neat pass found Athanasios Koutsogoulas, but his effort was excellently saved by Camilleri.

A few minutes later, Malta came up the other end, and after some neat passes, Jake Azzopardi found space outside the penalty area and hit a shot from range, but it went over the bar.

Greece made it 4-0 in the 63rd minute, after a neat flick from outside the Maltese penalty area found Stavros Pnevmonidis, who finished the move with a shot into the back of the net.

Greece continued to push for the rest of the match, but Malta solidified their backline and cut out most of the threat that the away side produced. However, there was time for Greece to add another goal, as Dimitris Rallis capitalised on a loose touch from the Maltese defence, before stroking the ball into the net.

The match finished 5-0 to the away side, with the young Maltese side next being in action against Northern Ireland and Georgia on 9th and 14th October, respectively.

Malta
1 Luca Camilleri (GK), 2 Sven Xerri, 3 Benjamin Hili, 4 Andy Borg, 5 Jake Vassallo, 6 Jake Micallef (C) (14 Jake Grech 46’), 7 Nathan Cross (20 Nicholas Agius 68’), 8 Jake Azzopardi, 9 Keyon Ewurum (19 Sean Gatt 46’), 10 Lucas Scicluna (16 Lucas Caruana 68’), 11 Joshua Pitts (17 Finley Ging 68’)
Coach: Davide Mazzotta

Greece
1 Nikolaos Botis (GK), 2 Athanasios Koutsogoulas, 3 Noa Tzeims Alen, 4 Alexios Kalogeropoulos (C), 5 Christos Alexiou, 6 Theofanis Bakoulas (21 Evangelos Nikolaou 28’), 7 Stavros Pnevmonidis (17 Ioannis Gavriil Bokos 78’), 8 Konstantinos Gkoumas (18 Ioannis Apostolakis 78’), 9 Georgios Koutsias (11 Dimitris Rallis 57’), 10 Antonios Papakanellos (14 Ioannis Theodosoulakis 57’), 20 Adriano Bregou
Coach: Ioannis Taousianis

Referee: Miloš Savović