Under-19 side loses to Italy in UEFA qualifiers

The Malta Under-19 national team lost 2-0 to Italy in the first match from Group 6 of the UEFA Under-19 Championship at the Stadio Nuovo in Misano Adriatico on Wednesday.

The hosts took the lead through Sebastiano Esposito two minutes from the end of the first half and Alessio Riccardi doubled the score on the 65th.

Winston Muscat’s side takes on Slovakia on Saturday at the same venue. Slovakia defeated Cyprus 2-1 in another match on Wednesday.

ITALY Federico Brancolini, Edoardo Pierozzi (56′ Fabio Ponsi), Paolo Gozzi Iweru, Memeh Caleb Okoli (73′ Nicolo Armini), Nicolo Rovella, Emmanuel Gyabuaa (56′ Eddie Salcedo), Lorenzo Colombini, Roberto Piccoli (73′ Elia Petrelli), Sebastiano Esposito, Alessio Riccardi (73′ Nicolo Fagioli).

MALTA Amara Sylla, Andreas Vella (77′ Ismael Borg), Glenn Attard, Christian Gauci, Shaun Dimech (86′ Jamie Sixsmith), Paul Mbong (76′ Ryan Tonna), Jake Ghio, Alex Satariano, Sebastian Grech, Carlo Zammit Lonardelli, Karl Mohnani.

Referee: Mohammed Al-Hakim (SWE)