Estonia win promotion despite gallant display of 10-men Malta

UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE 2022/2023
LEAGUE D – GROUP 2
A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn

ESTONIA…2
MALTA…1
(HT 1-0)

1-0 Sappinen, pen, 45+6, 1-1 Teuma, pen, 51, 2-1 Anier 86.

Despite a gallant second half display with a man less the entire half, Malta had to bow for Estonia tonight with the hosts beating the Maltese by the odd goal in three. The visitors certainly did not deserve to leave the pitch empty handed, but the red-card decision after VAR intervention on the stroke of half-time proved to be the decisive moment of the match, with the Estonians playing the waiting game after the break, striking the winning goal late in the game.

Beforehand, the task was clear for Malta as they had to win with an at least two goal margin to win promotion to Nations League Group C, which would have been the very first promotion in this UEFA competition.

New in the starting line-up for Malta was England based winger Jodi Jones, who is on the books of  League One outfit Oxford United. Jones played instead of another UK based player, Luke Gambin (Sutton United), who was not called up this time. Other changes when compared to Malta’s last match against San Marino in June were Jean Borg, who started instead of Ferdinando Apap, Cain Attard replaced Zach Muscat and up front, Alex Satariano was preferred in lieu of Luke Montebello.

Malta shared the exchanges with Estonia in the first half, with the hosts letting the initiative to Malta. It were however the Estonians who created the better chances as the final pass was clearly lacking for the visitors.

The hosts had a goal disallowed from Bogdan Vastsuk after four minutes play after VAR intervention, not long after captain Konstantin Vassiljev, on his 143^rd cap, hit the post during a moment of confusion in the Maltese defence. On 15 minutes, Henry Bonello had to stretch into the corner to turn a Rauno Sappinen header into a corner. Five minutes later, Ryan Camenzuli hit the side-netting after being sent through on the left by Teddy Teuma. On the half our mark, a Sappinen goal was ruled out for off-side and a Vassiljev 25-meters distance scorcher sailed inches wide on 37 minutes.

Deep into stoppage time of the first half, Estonia were awarded a penalty when Borg brought down Sergei Zenjov in the box, a spot kick given after VAR intervention. The Valletta defender was sent-off while Sappinen made no mistake from the spot, blasting the ball home to beat Bonello who nearly had a hand on it.

More drama followed as four minutes after the break, the referee initially overlooked a handball by substitute Tajjo Tenniste after a Camenzuli goal attempt. However, the error was corrected through VAR intervention and Teuma placed the ball neatly into the right corner from 11-meters to give Malta a lifeline.  

Even with numerical inferiority, Malta kept on dominating but without creating many goalscoring opportunities. Guillaumier came close with a distant header on 70 minutes from a Camenzuli cross while Joseph Mbong’s shot from the edge of the box four minutes later missed direction. Malta kept on pushing for the winner but were punished four minutes from full-time when substitute Henri Anier rounded off a swift counter-attack for Estonia, beating the onstorming Bonello with an accurate grounder.  

The 2022/23 Nations League commitments have now ended for Malta, while Estonia travel to San Marino to round off their League D sequence. Devis Mangia's squad will now return to Malta, where there is a Friendly waiting on Tuesday night against Israel at the National Stadium, kick off 21h.

Estonia
Karl Hein, Henrik Pűrg, Joonas Tamm, Karol Mets, Henrik Ojamaa (Vlasiy Sinyavsky 77), Bogdan Vastsuk (Martin Miller 68), Markus Soomets, Konstantin Vassiljev, Ken Kallaste (Tajjo Tenniste 46), Sergei Zenjov (Robert Kirss 90+4), Rauno Sappinen (Henri Anier 68)
Coach: Thomas Häberli

Malta
Henry Bonello, Jean Borg, Enrico Pepe, Cain Attard (Shaun Dimech 72), Ryan Camenzuli, Joseph Mbong, Matthew Guillaumier, Brandon Paiber (Jurgen Degabriele 72), Teddy Teuma, Jodi Jones (Steve Borg 46), Alex Satariano (Luke Montebello 89).
Coach: Devis Mangia

Referee
Daniel Siebert (Germany)

Yellow cards
Zenjov (E), Satariano (M)

Red card
J.Borg (45+4)