Malta’s waterpolo team suffered a heavy 3-17 defeat against Serbia in the first match of the LEN Europa Cup 2018.

Session scores were 0-4, 1-5, 1-5, 1-3.

Aurelien Cousin scored a brace for Malta while Ben Plumpton scored the other goal.

All European superpowers of men’s waterpolo entered the inaugural Europa Cup, LEN’s new premium competition for national teams.

Malta forms part of Group B, together with Serbia, Greece, Croatia and Netherlands.

The team in is Split in preparation for the double encounter with Belarus which is to determine which of the countries will take part in the European championships in Barcelona in June.

Malta plays against the Netherlands this morning.

The 13 players in Split are: Nicholas Grixti (Sirens), Nicholas Bugelli (Sliema), Andreas Galea (San Ġiljan), Darren Zammit (San Ġiljan), Jeremy Abela (Neptunes), Matthew Zammit (San Ġiljan), Stevie Camilleri (Neptunes), Jordan Camilleri (Neptunes), Ben Plumpton (San Ġiljan), Aurelien Cousin (Exiles), Zach Mizzi (Sliema), Dino Zammit (San Ġiljan), Jake Tanti (San Ġiljan)