Malta: R. Gauci, A. Muscat, C. Failla (J. Mifsud), R. Bajada (D. Falzon), J. Caruana, G. Sciberras, T. Cilia, A. Agius, A. Schembri, C. Frendo (S. Bajada), P. Fenech.

Bulgaria: E. Petrov, Z. Milanov, A. Olegov, B. Dyakov, A. Vergilov, T. Palankov (R. Anev), I. Micanski (P. Krumov), B. Hazurov, D. Rangelov, V. Domovchiyski, H. Zlatinski.

Referee: G. Rossi (San Marino). Asst refs: M. Busignani, M. Giusti. 4th official: S. Podeschi.

Scorers: V. Domovchiyski, A. Schembri,

Yellow cards: H. Zlatinski, G. Sciberras, R. Gauci, A. Vergilov

Malta earned another point to take its tally to five in this qualifying round and finish its commitments on a positive note. At the end, the youngsters also received some merited applauses from the small crowd present.

It was a fair result, even if the Bulgarians enjoyed more possession, especially during the second half.

The Bulgarians were, perhaps, better equipped technically speaking, but the Maltese showed a lot of determination.

In the first half, play was equally shared and Malta did well to fight back to equalise after Bulgaria had taken the lead in a very lucky manner.

However, in the second half, Malta was forced to defend for long stretches and goalie Gauci was also called upon to effect some saves, but despite their domination, the Bulgarians failed to score and Malta could come out with another positive result.

In that second half, Malta appeared to have abandoned all its plans and were more intent on defending the score rather than being adventurous. In fact, on several occasions, we just gave the ball away to our opponents by kicking the ball upfield.

Malta missed a good chance on six minutes when Paul Fenech headed wide of an open goal after the goalie fumbled a Trevor Cilia cross. On 14 minutes, Bulgaria opened the scoring in a lucky manner when a Cilia clearance hit Domovchiyski and the ball ended at the back of the net.

Malta retaliated and equalised five minutes later. Schembri received a cross from Failla, turned round the goalie and hit home.

Then, after Failla had a freekick going over, it was the visitors who went close to taking the lead once again, first through a Domovchiyski effort which went just over and before the interval through a Rangelov header which hit the crossbar.

On the changeover, it was Gauci who saved a Hazurov shot from the angle and on 65 minutes, Olegov’s long distance shot had the Malta goalie in difficulty, but he saved in two attempts.

With eight minutes to go, Rangelov made the most of a bad Gauci sortie, but his cross was missed by Domovchiyski in front of a gaping goalmouth.