Under-17 side lose opening match to Belgium

The Malta Under-17 national team lost 1-3 to Belgium in the opening game from Group 1 of the UEFA Under-17 Championship qualifiers at the Centenary Stadium on Thursday.

Yorbe Vertessen put Belgium ahead on the 22nd minute and Gabriel Lemoine doubled the score on the 32nd. Five minutes in the second half, Lemoine added another with Alexander Satariano reducing the gap on the 69th minute.

In another match on Thursday, Switzerland defeated Northern Ireland 5-0. Malta takes on Switzerland on Sunday.

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BELGIUM Maxime Delanghe, Siebe Vandermeulen (5′ Artuur Zutterman), Lars Dendoncker, Maxime Thiel, Nicolas Raskin, Yorbe Vertessen (56′ Largie Ramazani), Mathis Suray, Sekou Sidibe, Elias Sierra (68′ Yari Verschaeren), Killian Sardella, Gabriel Lemoine.

MALTA Amara Sylla, Liam Mckay, Andreas Vella, Matthew Portelli, Christian Gauci (59′ Jamie Sixsmith), Bradley Sciberras, Clyde Bouvet (79′ Jake Ghio), Shaun Dimech, Alexander Satariano, Carlo Zammit Lonardelli, Paul Mbong (79′ Russel Vella).

Referee: Michal Ocenáš (SVK)