The Malta U/21 played a warm up match today against a powerful Swiss U/20 side. The hosts however, gave a good account of themselves throughout the match. The Swiss had more ball possession and the 1-3 score line was a deserved one. New in the starting line-up of Silvio Vella was defender Kurt Shaw of Sliema Wanderers, deputizing for Jean Borg who played for the national team yesterday evening.

The match was played in difficult circumstances with a hard and cold wind and the occasional shower. In the 11th minute a good run of Joseph Mbong on the right was followed by a cross into the box but Jurgen Degabriele could not finish off this attack. One minute later Switzerland took the lead. An attack on the right wing was coolly rounded off by Kwadwo Duah inside the box.

On 19 minutes, Juan Corbolan had his shot from inside the box saved by Swiss goalkeeper Philipp Kohn. Two minutes later, Degabriele was inches short of meeting a Jake Grech free-kick from just outse the box. This was a good period for the hosts as barely one minute later, Kyrian Nwoko’s scorcher from 20 meters hit the crossbar.

In the 28th minute, goalkeeper Jake Galea needed to be replaced by Andreas Vella of Mosta, a new goalkeeper in the U21 squad. Vella did well to intercept a challenge by Neftali Manzambi in the 39th minute in a clear scoring opportunity for Switzerland. Nwoko, one of Malta’s best players today, was again dangerous two minutes from half-time. His powerful shot from just outside the box was saved however by Kohn.

The hosts were playing against the wind in the second half. The first opportunity came from the visitors in the 54thminute via substitute Martin Liechti who’s shot from close in sailed high. Not much later however, the visitors doubled the score via a thunderbolt from just outside the box of Vasilije Janjicic on the hour, leaving Vella helpless. At that moment, Vella introduced another two promising youngsters with Andrea and Conor Borg, who play for Peterborough and AS Roma respectively. In the 67th minute Nwoko pulled one back for Malta after finishing off a good attack in the centre of the pitch, a much-deserved goal for the hosts.

In the 74th minute another new face entered the pitch for Malta. It was Dylon Agius’ turn, who plays for Pieta’ Hotspurs. With ten minutes on the clock a Janjicic scorcher just missed target. One minute later it was 1-3 for the visitors with Dunstan Vella unluckily deflecting a shot from Neftali Manzambi.  With two minutes to go, Neil Tabone of Zejtun Corinthians entered the fray, another new player in the squad of Vella.

It was a useful warm-up match for the squad, who now travel to Turkey to play another match in the UEFA U/21 Championships, next Tuesday 27 March, kick-off time 15:00 hours.

The Malta Independent spoke with Malta U21 head coach Silvio Vella about Malta's last commitment in the Group and about Malta positioned at the bottom of the Group 6 with no points to show after five matches. 

"I still believe that it was unjust for my team not to pick up points after our first three matches in the Group.  We had to endure decisions taken which were totally against us. I can still recall the goal we scored in injury time against Belgium which to this day I still cannot reason out why this was disallowed.

“Against both Cyprus and Hungary, we suffered losses due to last minute goals so all in all our performances were very encouraging. We were very near to achieving points even in the other matches but points are still not showing. 

“The team performed and I happy with this. We are playing against very strong opposition, some of whom have already produced players for their senior national team. 

“Here we are talking about teams like Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Turkey etc, - all professional status football nations. 

“But again, I reiterate that we were not that far off from getting results.  We still lack a bit more to get there. Finally, I would like to mention that luck was not our side as well," Vella stated.

Malta: Jake Galea (Andrea Vella 28), Kurt Zammit (Neil Tabone 88), Dunstan Vella, Karl Micallef, Kurt Shaw, Juan Corbolan (Conor Borg 60), Joseph Mbong (Dylon Agius 74), Michele Sansone, Jake Grech (Nicky Muscat 80), Kyrian Nwoko, Jurgen Degabriele (Andrea Borg 60)

Switzerland: Philipp Kohn, Charles Pickel (Allan Arigoni 46), Cedric Zesiger (Timo Righetti 46), Linus Obexer, Jan Bamert, Remo Arnold (Robin Huser 46), Michael Aebischer (Martin Liechti 46), Ruben Vargas, Vasilije Janjicic, Kwadwo Duah (Petar Pusic 46), Neftali Manzabi

Referee: Clayton Pisani (Malta)