A ten-man Slovenia side ended Malta’s positive run at the start of this Group as they beat Farrugia’s boys comfortably 4-1 to move to the top place.

After this result, Malta is in joint second place with Finland. Both have four points.

It was sheer disappointment for Malta who had obtained a victory and a draw away from home in their opening two matches.

The visitors appeared to be a superior outfit and should be leading contenders to qualify for the finals.

Farrugia did not make use of Birkirkara midfielder Rowen Muscat at the start. It was evident that he had not fully recovered after his recent bout of flu. He started on the substitutes bench, but played the whole second half.

On the other hand, he included Leighton Grech right from the start after recovering from a hamstring injury.

The Malta side had to defend, and when it attacked they were rarely dangerous.

The first half saw the Maltese adopting a cautious approach and Slovenia taking the initiative.

In Dejan Lazarevic, the Slovenians had the man of the match. Whenever he had the ball at his feet, he showed class and skill. It was a delight to watch him play the ball so intelligently.

In the second half, Malta tried to get back into the game, and created two good chances before Slovenia produced the killer goal – the third – which ended the locals’ hopes of saving something from this encounter.

Malta’s consolation goal 11 minutes from the end was not enough to save the day for the local boys. Instead, it was Slovenia who added another one for good measure.

Both sides sized up each other at the start but on 10 minutes, it was Slovenia who threatened through Jelenic, but goalie Sultana blocked his shot from the angle.

Malta’s reply arrived on the 17th minute when Terence Vella received a good ball, advanced into the area and rounded two defenders, only to see his effort going wide.

Slovenia were again dangerous in the 22nd minute when Beric had a clear path on the left, but his cross was well dealt with by Matthew Gauci. At the other end, immediately afterwards, a Terence Vella cross was just too high for the well placed Bjorn Kristensen.

After 27 minutes, a fine move between Kristensen and Grech ended with the latter’s low cross into the area being flicked weakly by Tristan Caruana into the waiting hands of the Slovenian goalie.

Slovenia opened the scoring on the 32nd minute. Lazarevic dribbled his way into the Malta area. When he lost the ball, Zach Muscat’s clearance went straight to Robert Beric who beat Steve Sultana from the angle.

Just before the interval, Slovenia ended in 10 men when N. Melvja was shown the red card after a second yellow card following a tough tackle on Terence Vella.

Despite this setback, Slovenia added a second goal in added time. From a Kampl freekick, the unmarked Rep hit home a low shot.

Malta started the second half on attack and after seven minutes, a Rowen Muscat cross was completely missed by Kristensen.

Malta protested in vain for a penalty when a Steve Pisani cross appeared to have been handled by Resek, but the referee ignored the protests.

Immediately afterwards, Lazarevic mesmerised the local defence in one of his brilliant solo actions, but his final shot went wide.

On 55 minutes, Malta almost pulled one back when Grech set Kristensen beautifully, but goalie Oblak denied the Hibs youngster. Moments later it was 3-0 when Lazarevic received the ball and advanced on the left to beat Sultana with a low, angled shot.

Eleven minutes from the end, Malta finally managed to score. It was a good pass from Grech to Zach Muscat who entered the area to beat Oblak with a low shot.

Jelenic scored the fourth and final goal for Slovenia in the 87th minute.

Malta: S. Sultana, Z. Muscat, O. Bugeja, Y. Camilleri, M. Gauci, C. Borg (R. Muscat), M. Scerri, B. Kristensen, L. Grech, T. Caruana (S. Pisani), T. Vella (M. Ciantar).

Slovenia: J. Oblak, B. Jovic, M. Resek (D. Trajkovski), K. Kampl, N. Mevlja, R. Rep, D. Lazarevic, A. Delamea-Mlinar, E. Jelenic, M. Mevlja (N. Mitrovic), R. Beric (L. Crncic).

Referee: A. Kuchin (Kazakhstan)

Asst referees: Y. Belskiy, B. Kopzhassarov.

4th official: I. Khissamudinov.

Scorers: Beric 32, Rep 45, Lazarevic 56, Z. Muscat 78, E. Jelenic 87

Yellow cards: Y. Camilleri, M. Gauci, E. Jelenic

Red card: N. Melvja 44,

Attendance: 632.