The Maltese national football team was the talk of the town yesterday. The excellent victory and performance against Hungary on Wednesday night at Ta’ Qali was the third at home and the fourth overall.

The last victory was the 1-0 away against Estonia in Tallinn when Pippo Psaila was national coach.

To Czech Republic coach Dusan Fitzel fell the honour of ending a 13-year famine for Malta in competitive football as the national side more than merited the 2-1 defeat of Hungary.

Reports from Hungary yesterday indicated that the result was a big humiliation for Hungarian football lovers and a Budapest journalist told The Malta Independent that repercussions were expected after this result which he described as disastrous.

In fact, there is already mention of a possible resignation of coach Peter Bozsik, but this could not be confirmed.

In Malta, the victory was welcomed with great joy from all quarters except, perhaps, for the three local TV stations and radios – TVM and Radio Malta, One TV and One Radio and Net TV and Radio 101, who never made a mention of, at least, the result. Their boycott of local football continues following the dispute this season over TV rights with the Malta Football Association.

Uefa.com, the official UEFA website, also commented on Malta’s achievement.

In an article, local correspondent and photographer Domenic Aquilina said Malta enjoy ‘moment to savour’.

Malta’s next match is a friendly against Lithuania in November. Another friendly against Austria is scheduled for February to commemorate the first ever international played by Malta 50 years ago. Competitive football starts again in March when Malta is due to meet Moldova and later Greece in Group C of the European Championship.