Malta U16 fall to defeat in first international friendly against North Macedonia

Photos by Nicholas Falzon

UNDER-16 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY
Centenary Stadium, 14.02.2025

MALTA…0
NORTH MACEDONIA…5
(HT 0-3)

12' Medin Emini (MKD), 32' Aleksandar Polimac (MKD), 40' Medin Emini (MKD), 54' Andrei Agius OG (MKD), 67' Marin Krstevski (MKD)

The Malta Under-16 National Team fell to a 5-0 defeat in the first of two international friendlies against North Macedonia on Saturday afternoon.

The encounter at the Centenary Stadium was off to a cagey start, with both teams seeking to control possession.

The opener came in the 12th minute, when the away side capitalised on a loose pass from the Maltese defence, with the ball then being squared to Medin Emini for an easy tap-in.

Malta settled down after the opening goal, and they started to keep the North Macedonia forwards more at bay, but they were also finding it difficult to break down the away side’s defence.

North Macedonia doubled their lead in the 32nd minute, when some neat play down Malta’s left-flank led to the ball falling for Aleksandar Polimac.

In the 40th minute, North Macedonia robbed Malta of the ball in midfield, with Emini once again being in the right place at the right time to finish for the visitors, making it 3-0.

54 minutes into the encounter, North Macedonia made it 4-0 when a lofted corner-kick was unfortunately diverted into Malta’s own net by Andrei Agius for an own goal.

In the 67th minute, North Macedonia were awarded a penalty after a foul in the penalty area. Marin Krstevski stepped up to take the spot-kick, and he made no mistake from his effort, lobbing the ball into the back of the net.

Malta tried to respond, but they eventually ran out of time, and the match finished 5-0 to North Macedonia.

The two sides will meet again for another international friendly match on Monday 16th February.

Malta
1 Noah Mulholland (GK) (23 Deyan Gatt, 25’), 2 Luke Buttigieg (22 Liam Gatt, 70’), 3 Giorgio Cristauro (13 Liam Galea, 70’), 4 Nicholas Busuttil (C) (20 Jerome Gaffiero, 70’), 5 Matteo Mangion (16 Zack Xiberras, 70’), 6 Andrei Agius (15 Emerson Agius, 58’), 7 Gianni Zerafa (17 Mateja Stevanovic, 58’), 8 Cole Zerafa (21 Matthew Higgans, 58’), 9 Miguel Camilleri (19 Lukas Wright, 46’), 10 Ayrem Aquilina (18 Sean Farrugia, 58’), 11 Kenzil Vella.
Coach: Davide Mazzotta

North Macedonia
1 Ilan Memeti (GK), 3 Mihajlo Pavlov (19 Djihan Ibraimi, 58’), 5 Filip Gjorgjioski (14 Ejser Fetai, 69’), 6 Amar Akiki (2 Mitko Stojanov, 58’), 7 Aleksandar Polimac (10 Dalibor Markovic, 69’), 8 Dardan Ademi, 11 Martin Krstevski (C) (13 Efe Raifi, 69’), 15 Ilija Aksentiev (21 Biagoja Sedloski, 69’), 17 Ognen Sivevski (4 Matej Bocheski, 58’), 18 Adrian Veleski (16 Bobi Nedanovski, 58’), 20 Medin Emini (9 Matej Nikolov, 58’)
Coach: Ilami Isejni