The Malta Under-21 national team fell to a 5-0 defeat at the hands of a very strong Greece side at the Municipal Stadium of Livadia on Friday evening, with Malta holding their own for significant periods of the much, but the home side were ultimately very clinical whenever they went forward.
Greece started on the front foot, and in the seventh minute, they came close to opening the scoring, when a corner was swung into the penalty area, and after a series of blocks from the Maltese defence, the ball was eventually cleared away.
The hosts got the opening goal in the 16th minute, when Konstantinos Gkoumas was found by Charalampos Kostoulas, with the former then slotting the ball past James Sissons and into the far post, making it 1-0.
In the 21st minute, Malta had an opportunity to push forward, and after some neat play, Brooklyn Borg put in an excellent through ball towards Kai Giyan Bartolo, but he could not get a clean contact with the ball, and it was saved by Nikolaos Botis. Moments later, Greece went up the other end, and a well struck shot from Dimitriois Chatsidis was palmed away by Sissons. However, Greece doubled their advantage in the 23rd minute, when a corner was swung into the penalty area, and Georgios Koutsias was at the back post to slot the ball into the net.
The home side had another opportunity in the 40th minute, when a loose ball from a corner fell to a Greece midfielder, yet despite the ball taking a wicked deflection, Sissons reacted well and palmed the ball away from danger.
After the break, Greece extended their lead straight away, when a pass found a way through the Maltese defence, and Dimitrios Kaloskamis scored with a neat finish. Malta looked to respond right after, and after an excellent counterattack, Nicholas Agius had a shot deflected away for a corner. From the resulting corner, Malta tried to divert the ball towards goal, but the Greece defence stood strong and eventually cleared the ball away.
Malta had a bright period after Greece’s third goal, but the home side were then awarded a penalty in the 60th minute, which Koutsias calmly dispatched to make it 4-0. After a relatively strong period from Malta, where they had a great share of the ball and tried to carve openings through the Greece defence, the home side managed to hit Malta on the counter and got their fifth, with Koutsias once again on the scoresheet to complete his hat-trick.
Malta came very close to getting a consolation goal in the 89th minute, when from a corner, a close-range shot was saved by Botis, and the Maltese frontline could not convert the rebound.
Despite some late pressure from Malta, they could not get a goal back, and the match finished 5-0 to Greece.
The Malta U21 National Team will be back in action on Tuesday 31st March 2026 when they take on Georgia in another UEFA European U21 Championship Qualifier.
Photo courtesy of Malta FA
GREECE Nikolaos Botis, Athanasios Koutsogoulas, Noah James Allen, Alexios Kalogeropoulos, Christos Alexiou (46’ Konstantinos Kostoulas), Konstantinos Gkoumas (72’ Ioannis Apostolakis), Georgios Koutsias (82’ Dimitris Rallis), Dimitrios Kaloskamis (62’ Adriano Bregou), Christos Almyras, Dimitrios Chatsidis (62’ Panagiotis Tsantilas), Charalampos Kostoulas.
MALTA James Sissons, Kean Scicluna, Mattias Ellul, Sven Xerri, Andy Borg, Brooklyn Borg (86’ Kaiden Fenech), Nicholas Agius, Tristan Viviani (84’ Nikita Shchepetkin), Jake Micallef (69’ Lucas Caruana), Shaisen Attard (69’ Joshua Pitts), Kai Bartolo (83’ Nathan Cross).
Referee: Cláudio Pereira POR
Assistant referees: Pedro Ribeiro, Pedro Martins POR
Fourth official: Fabio Verissimo POR