The Malta Under-17 side, led by Sergio Soldano, once again found the going tough as they suffered a 0-6 defeat to the Republic of Ireland at the Harju Sport Center in Lohja, Finland in another match from Group 3 of the UEFA Under-17 Championship qualifying round.

Ireland took the lead through Michael Cregan on 28 minutes and five minutes later, Declan Rice doubled the score. Rice added another one minute from the end of the first half. Kian Flanagan scored the fourth goal on 53 minutes before Michael Cregan added another two goals – a penalty on the hour and another goal six minutes from time.

Malta plays its third and final game against hosts Finland on Tuesday. Finland lost 0-1 to Ireland but then held Sweden in a 1-1 draw.

MALTA Lyden Moore, Zachary Grech, Jeremy Busuttil, Gary Camilleri, Kurt Shaw,Owen Magro (56′ Neil Frendo), Omar Elouni, Jurgen Grech (72′ John Neil Cutajar), Kyle Gatt (41′ Andrei Spiteri), Gianluca Bugeja, Jan Busuttil.

IRELAND Mark Travers, Daniel McKenna (62′ Aidan Keena), Tyreke Wilson, Declan Rice (67′ Dara O’Shea), Canice Carroll, Jayson Molumby, Lee O’Connor, Michael Cregan, James Finnerty, Kian Flanagan, Luke Kiely (56′ Callum Nicell Galbraith).

Referee: Vladimir Vnuk (SVK)