Malta figured in a goalless draw with Hungary in the first of two Under 19 international friendly matches at the Ta’ Qali training grounds yesterday.

Coach Michael Molzahn and his Hungarian counterpart are using these two international matches programmed to prepare for the future competitive matches. The Maltese Under 19s will play in November against Albania, Denmark and host Austria to qualify for the next phase of the UEFA Under 19 Euro tournament.

The home team lost the services of B. Kristensen just after 11 minutes as he felt his nagging hamstring injury early in the match and was substituted with Christian Grech.

In the second half the reds settled down quickly and had good control of the first 15 minutes.

Despite some changes, the match ended in a stalemate with a couple of shots at goal for both sides.

Michael Molzahn commented to mfa.com.mt "We did not have a particular good performance in the first half but we showed good spirit. In the second half we played much better and created some good opportunities at goal. This positive result serves well for our next matches in building up for the competitive and important ones coming in November."

The next match is to be played tomorrow at 11am at the Gozo Stadium.

Malta team: K. Magri, B. Kristensen, K. Tanti, JP. Calleja, A. Azzopardi, Z. Muscat, J. Debono, M. Desira Buttigieg, S. Borg, C. Grech, R.Scicluna.

Substitutes: K. Rizzo, S. Arab, R. Dalli, T. Agius, I. Scerri, B. Farrugia.

Coach: Michael Molzahn