The Malta Under-21 side ended its commitments in Group 7 of the UEFA Under-21 Championship qualifiers without any points after losing 0-3 to Turkey at the National Stadium on Friday.
Turkey, on the other hand, share the runner-up spot with Sweden on the 13-point mark with one match to go – two behind leaders Poland and one ahead of Greece.
For his debut as Under-21 coach, Silvio Vella could not count on a number of players who were promoted to the senior national team or were suspended. These included Jean Paul Farrugia, Steve Pisani, Bjorn Kristensen, Ryan Scicluna, Zach Muscat and Daniel Zerafa.
Emrah Başsan put Turkey ahead on 13 minutes and the same player managed to double the score three minutes in the second half. Mehemmet Demir sealed the issue with a third goal seven minutes from time.
MALTA Jurgen Borg, Cain Attard, Christian Grech, Louis Cutajar, Clyde Borg (80′ Johann Bezzina), Brooke Farrugia, Llywelyn Cremona, Ryan Camenzuli (69′ Sacha Borg), Lydon Micallef (86′ Ryan Micallef), Jurgen Pisani, Luke Montebello.
TURKEY Omer Kahveci, Okan Alkan, Ahmet Yilmaz Calik, Kerim Koyunlu (83′ Enes Unal), Alpaslan Ozturk, Salih Ucan, Muhammed Demirci, Hakan Cinemre, Omer Ali Sahiner (63′ Muhammet Demir), Yusuf Erdogan, Emrah Başsan (72′ Bilal Basacikoglu).
Referee: Neil Doyle