Winning start for Pietro Ghedin as Malta defeats Luxembourg

New coach Pietro Ghedin could not have had a better debut as Malta defeated Luxembourg 2-0 in a friendly match at the Stade Josy Barthel on Saturday

It was a fine performance for the national team which was clearly the better side throughout the ninety minutes, claiming the second consecutive win following the 2-1 win over Liechtenstein in February.

Once again, Michael Mifsud scored another two goals to increase his tally to thirty-four goals.

The Maltese created the first goal scoring opportunity when Daniel Bogdanovic served Andre Schembri whose close range header was blocked by Joubert. On the 8th, Cohen, served by mIfsud had a shot from the edge of the area ending just wide.

Malta took the lead on the 10th minute. Daniel Bogdanovic sent Michael Mifsud through and the latter rounded the goalkeeper, hitting past the Luxembourg goalkeeper.

The hosts improved but the boys in red controlled their opponents well.

Luxembourg were reduced to ten men one minute from the end of the first half when captain Mario Mutsch collected a second yellow card and was therefore sent off by referee Markus Hameter.

The hosts went close with a freekick by Eric Hoffmann from the left which was blocked on 61 minutes.

Jonathan Joubert performed a great save on a powerful shot from outside the area by Michael Mifsud off a Daniel Bogdanovic freekick on 74 minutes.

Malta doubled the score ten minutes from time when Andre Schembri served Daniel Bogdanovic with an intelligent pass on the right and off the latter’s cross, Michael Mifsud anticipated the goalkeeper and a defender placing the ball at the back of the net.

Photos: Copyright   Paul Zammit Cutajar

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MALTA Andrew Hogg, Jonathan Caruana, Gareth Sciberras (46′ Paul Fenech), Andrei Agius (74′ Joseph Zerafa), Alex Muscat (46′ Steve Borg), Daniel Bogdanovic, Roderick Briffa, Michael Mifsud, Andrew Cohen, Clayton Failla, Andre Schembri (81′ Edmond Agius).
LUXEMBOURG Jonathan Joubert, Chris Philipps, Guy Blaise (34′ Eric Hoffmann), Tom Schnell, Charles Leweck, Ben Payal, Dan Collette (81′ Mathias Yanisch), Aurelien Joachim, Mario Mutsch, Lars Gerson (46′ Daniel Da Mota), Stefano Bensi (46′ Gilles Bettmer).
Referee: Markus Hameter Markus
Assistant Referee: Christian Trunner, Markus Katona
Fourth Official: Sales Romain