Italy’s Efrem Intra shattered Massimo Cremona’s world championship dreams in Dortmund last week as he beat the Maltese hero 2-1 on the golden goal rule in the final after a 1-1 draw.

On his way to the final, Cremona eliminated many high-profile players including Belgium Valery Dejardin and German Roland Popp from the Group Stages. In the last 32 stage it was the turn Italian Saverio Bari to be beaten 1-0. In the last 16 it was ex world number 1, Eric Verhagen, to be his next victim: 3-1. In the quarter-final then he put out Italian Antonio Mettivieri 3-2 , while in the semi-final Cremona had to show character to eliminate two-times world champion Gil Delogne 3-2 on shoots after a 1-1 draw.

After this achievement Cremona now is the new number one player in the World Rankings list.