U19s go down fighting against strong Portuguese

UEFA UNDER-19 FINAL TOURNAMENT
09.07.2023
Gozo Stadium, Xewkija

MALTA…1
PORTUGAL…2
(HT 0-1)

0-1 Miguel Fale 8, 1-1 Basil Tuma 72, 1-2 Joao Goncalves 75.

On a hot and humid summer night in Gozo, the Malta Under-19s played their hearts out against tournament favourites Portugal, nearly upsetting their more quoted opponents with a goal late in the game, only for the guests to restore their lead a few minutes later. Although Portugal dominated, they created very few goalscoring opportunities throughout the match, also much to the credit of the Maltese defence, who never put a foot wrong.

Compared with the match last Thursday against Poland, coach Antonio Mendes ‘Toze’ changed his team on four places. In defence, Jake Micallef returned from suspension and was preferred instead of Jake Vassallo, while Mattias Ellul filled in the void of Tristan Viviani on the left back position. On midfield, as expected, the suspended Dylan Scicluna was replaced by Lucas Caruana while up front, Nathan Cross started instead of Alfie Bridgman.

Portugal broke the deadlock after only eight minutes when Miguel Fale’s grounder from the edge of the box, after being served by Joao Goncalves, had the better of Hugo Sacco during an attack when the Maltese attack should have interfered earlier, on of the very few mistakes of the night.

The guests dominated, despite leaving some established players out of the starting line-up. The unmarked Luis Gomes missed a sitter just after the half hour from close-range with only Sacco to beat. This was the best opportunity to double for the guests before the break, during a first half in which Malta sporadically found the opponents box, with the usual Basil Tuma keeping the Portuguese rear-guard on the alert with his darting runs.

More of the same after the break, with the guests creating very little danger in the Malta box, while the hosts were most definitely more adventurous on the half of the strong Portuguese. On 72 minutes, Malta equalised when Tuma was on hand to punish a mistake by goalkeeper Diogo Pinto, who tried to clear far out of his box, but Tuma intercepted and shot low into the empty net. However, Malta’s joy was short-lived as Joao Goncalves hit home from close-range just three minutes later to restore Portugal’s lead.

Malta tried to hard to get an equaliser but the Portuguese cleared all danger coming their way, to bag their third win of the tournament. They are therefore Group A winners with maximum points from their three games.

For Malta, the tournament as ended, a journey which already started with the Under-18s during season 2021/22, playing various friendly games and testing over 30 players. Despite three defeats in the final tournament, there are many positives with several talented players available who will be directly the backbone of the Under 21 squad and eventually the Malta national team.

Malta
Hugo Sacco, Mattias Ellul, Sven Xerri, Jake Micallef, Andrew Borg (Bjorn Buhagiar 69), Benjamin Hili (Tristan Viviani 54), Lucas Scicluna, Lucas Caruana (Brooklyn Borg 69), Daniel Letherby (Ivin Farrugia 79), Nathan Cross (Sean Gatt 69), Basil Tuma
Coach: Antonio Mendes ‘ Toze’

Portugal
Diogo Pinto, Goncalvo Esteves, Gabriel Bras, Luis Gomes, Martim Fernandes (Carlos Borges 65), Joao Goncalves, Yanis Da Rocha, Diogo Prioste (Hugo Felix 46), Jorge Mereiles (Rodrigo Ribeiro 65), Herculano Nabian (Martim Marques 65), Miguel Fale
Coach: Joaquim Milheiro

Referee: Joonas Jaanovits (Estonia)

Yellow cards: Caruana, Letherby, Ellul

Attendance: 894

Images copyright by Stephen Gatt