Montenegro         17
Malta                     5
(4-1, 7-0, 4-2, 2-2)

As expected Malta suffered the second consecutive defeat in the Barcelona 2018 European Championship, going down heavily against the strong and title contenders Montenegro.

Malta suffered most in the first half of the match, especially in the second quarter, conceding seven goals. Malta’s shooting efficiency was better against Spain, when it reached 25 percent against yesterday’s 20.8 per cent, but Malta again lacked scoring power in man up situations, scoring only twice from nine possibilities.

Numerically speaking there was a slight improvement over the 17-goal deficit suffered against Spain in the first match.

Malta had a very difficult start, suffering three goals inside the first two and a half minutes. Malta pulled one back through Matthew Zammit, but Mladan Janovic made it 4-1 before the end of the first quarter.

Malta had only four shots at goal in this session from nine possessions, failing to take advantage of two 20-seconds exclusions.

The second session started with Montenegro increasing their lead with Duro Radovic, and Aleksandar Ivovic made it six after a fast break. Montenegro continued to score with relative ease making it 8-1 with goals from Petkovic and Ivovic.

Malta missed the third man-up opportunity and Steve Camilleri had three attempts saved by the Montenegro goalkeeper. Another fast break gave Montenegro the possibility to score the ninth goal.

Malta also missed the fourth man up opportunity with Ben Plumpton’s shot saved by Lazovic and Jeremy Abela’s back hand smashing against the post. But Montenegro were finding it too easy in their breaks with the Maltese practically always in numerical inferiority.

Draskovic and Radovic added further goals for an 11-1 scorline at the interval. The second quarter was a nightmare for the Malta team with Montenegro winning the session 7-0 and scoring seven goals in their nine possessions, having an almost 70 percent shooting efficiency.

Jake Tanti started in goal for Malta for the second half of the match, but the goals kept coming in regularly, another three inside the first 75 seconds of the third quarter. Malta managed to score with a man up on the fifth attempt with Matthew Zammit scoring his second goal of the match for a partial 14-2 scoreline.

Malta had another numerical superiority but Steve Camilleri’s shot was blocked, and on the other end Montenegro increased their tally to 15 with an Ivovic shot. After missing another man up opportunity, Malta scored a third goal through Ben Plumpton, finally deceiving the opponents in a fast break, to end the third quarter with the partial score of 2-4.

Montenegro rotated several players in the final quarter but scored another two goals inside the first three minutes. Malta defended well in this quarter as Montenegro eased the pressing and Aurelien Cousin and Steve Camilleri scored the finals goal of the match for a final 17-5 score line, with the final quarter finishing level at 2-2.

Results

Group A

Germany-Georgia 10-9

Hungary-Italy 5-12

Group B

Montenegro-Malta 17-5

Spain-France 7-4

Group C

Croatia-Turkey 23-2

Greeece-Netherlands 12-7

Group D

Romania-Slovakia 9-5

Russia-Serbia 9-11