Malta lost 0-5 to Finland in the first match from the UEFA Futsal EURO Main Round at the University Sports Hall on Tuesday.

In the first half, Finland dominated proceedings with the Maltese operating on counterattacks.

The Finns surged ahead on 9 minutes when after a kick-in, the ball reached Jani Korpela whose grounder beat Mifsud. Finland doubled the score six minutes in the second half thanks to a powerful shot by captain Jukka Kytola.

The Maltese came out with the flying keeper Collin Sammut and it was here that the opponents took advantage and Vesa Lilja scored in an empty net. The Maltese seemed confused and even suffered the fourth goal scored by Henri Alamikotervo and Lassi Lintula made it 5-0 in the dying minutes.

Malta will now play the second game on February 4th against Belarus away from home.

Photo courtesy of Joe Borg

Malta: Clint Mifsud, Celino Alves, Mark Zammit, Maicon, Marwan Telisi, Ryan Marmara, Andre Ciancio, Michael Borg, Giancarlo Sammut, Andre Cachia, Luke Gatt, Nathan Cope, Collin Sammut, Robert Stoyanov.

Finlandja: Juha Matti Savolainen, Tero Intala, Lassi Lintula, Jani Korpela, Iliro Vanha, Kasper Kangas, Henri Alamikotervo, Jakho Alassutari, Tuuka Pikkarainen, Jukka Kytola, Sergei Korsunov, Justus Kunnas, Aleks Pirtijjoki, Vesa Lilja.

Referees: Besar Beqiri, Besart Ismalji (Kosovo)