Malta                 5
Russia             18
(1-2, 2-5, 2-3, 0-8)

Malta suffered a heavy defeat against Russia yesterday at the National Pool in Tal-Qroqq in the opening match of the World League Euro Cup. As expected it was a difficult opener for the locals, who will face two other uphill tasks against Germany and Hungary in the forthcoming matches.

Malta held on to a respectable score till the end of the third period with just a five-goal deficit, but then suffered 0-8 score in the final session for a heavy 5-18 defeat.

Malta's best scorer yesterday Jordan Camilleri opened the score for Malta but Dimitri Kholod scored a brace to put Russia in front at the end of the first quarter. In the second session Ben Plumpton made it 2-2, but the Russians scored three quick goals in succession through with Nagaev twice and Kharkov to make it 2-5.

Jordan Camilleri scored his second goal of the match shortly afterwards to keep the locals in the contest, but two goals from Konstantin Kharkov made it 7-3 for the Russians till the halfway line.

Kharkov scored again on the resumption but Nicolas Bugelli scored Malta's goal to make it 4-8. The distance between the two sides remained the same with goals from Nagaev and Jordan Camilleri, but Ivan Nagaev scored again to make it 5-10 till the end of the third quarter.

The Maltese were however completely outclassed in the last session with the Russians scoring at will, eight goals in the last eight minutes. Valletta's new signing Dimitri Kholod started the massacre, with Andryukov scoring a hat trick with Nagaev and Vasilev scoring two goals each for a final 5-18 scoreline.

Malta: N. Grixti, N. Bugelli 1, A. Galea, J. Sciberras, G. Pace, I. Riolo, B. Plumpton, J. Camilleri 3, J. Abela, D. Zammit, Z. Mizzi, M. Zammit, J. Tanti.

Russia: P. Fedotov, I. Suchkov, S. Andryukov 2, N. Dereviankin, K. Kiselev, K. Kharkov 4, D. Merkulov, I. Nagaev 6, I. Bychkov, D. Kholod 2, N. Krug, I. Vasilev, V. Statsenko

Referees: Andreas Moralis, Sergio Galindo