Under-16s suffer another defeat to Luxembourg

The Malta Under-16 team suffered a second defeat to Luxembourg as the latter registered a 4-2 win in an entertaining friendly match at the Centenary Stadium on Thursday.

Led by coach Noel Turner, the Maltese boys did their best to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat in the opening warm-up but Luxembourg again proved tough opponents.

Luxembourg took the lead on 32 minutes when Cedric Baiverlin’s accurate drive from outside the penalty box had the better of the diving Spiteri.

Malta pressed for an equaliser in the closing stages of the first half, creating two good chances through Jacob Crossey and Azriel Borg.

Luxembourg made Malta pay for these missed chances midway into the second half as Tiago Rodrigues da Costa doubled the lead for the visitors with a close-range effort.

The visitors went 3-0 up 12 minutes from time, Noah Rossler scoring from the rebound after Luciano Camilleri, who had come on for Spiteri, had blocked the initial attempt.

Malta pulled one back ten minutes from time with a goal from Andrea Zammit who had entered the fray in the second half.

The goals kept coming with Luxembourg restoring their advantage with Rodrigues da Costa’s second goal as Turner’s team pushed forward.

However on the stroke of time, Zammit capitalised on a mistake by the Luxembourg goalkeeper to score his second goal.

These friendly matches were intended to help Malta’s preparations for next month’s UEFA Youth Development Tournament. Malta will be facing Albania, Denmark and Scotland between March 4 and 8. All matches will be played at the Centenary Stadium.

MALTA Miguel Spiteri (Luciano Camilleri), Sebastian Cassar Torregiani, Owen Sammut (Russel Micallef), Mattia Aquilina (Zean Leonardi), James Vella, Nathan Agius (Andrea Zammit), Kurt Briffa (Glending Farrugia), Azriel Borg (Jake Grech), Joseph Xerri (Jed Valletta), Brite Anayochi Ihuomah (Neil Buttigieg), Jacob Crossey (Matteo Gambin).

LUXEMBOURG Evan Da Costa, Noah Rossler, Eldin Dzogovic, Fabio Cerqueira Martins, Paul Schroeder, Ruben Goncalves Matheus, Ryley Ferreira, Franz Sinner, Eldin Cikotic, Cedric Baiverlin, Timothe Rupil.

Referee: Luke Xuereb.

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