Malta succumbed to a second heavy defeat in the last game of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying group, losing 0-6 to Slovakia at Ta' Qali Stadium.

On Friday, Malta had lost 1-7 to Croatia. These two heavy defeats meant Malta finished last in the group, with a worse goal difference than Cyprus.

The game was dead and buried after a quarter of an hour with Slovakia already three goals ahead.

To make matters worse Malta was reduced to nine men at the start of the start of the second half and suffered three more goals as our opponents pressed for more. Goalkeeper Henry Bonello, much criticized after the drubbing against Croatia, was undoubtedly our hero yesterday saving endless certain goals as the score could have easily reached double figures.

Coach Devis Mangia seems to have lost the plot. Something surely went wrong in the last few months, basically from the start of the new season. In the last three home outings in the group Malta suffered seventeen goals and scored just one, thanks to Brozovic’s own goal on Thursday.

Malta once again failed to avoid the last spot in the group finishing with five points like Cyprus, but the latter have a better goal difference, even though Malta obtained four of its points against Cyprus.

Mangia made five changes from the side that faced Croatia on Thursday, leaving out Andrei Agius, Luke Montebello, Jurgen Degabriele, Bjorn Kristensen and the suspended Pepe. Matthew Guillaumier, Paul Mbong, Jean Borg, Alex Satariano and Zach Muscat took their places, but the outcome remained the same.

Slovakia coach Stefan Tarkovic also made a whole revolution to the side, with eight changes from the last outing against Slovenia. Cologna striker Duda was their hero with a hat trick.

The start was promising with Satariano claiming for a penalty after two minutes, but the Frosinone striker only received a yellow card from the Croatian referee who was anything but helpful. On six minutes in their first real attack Slovakia broke the deadlock when Strelec chested towards Rusnak who drilled home.

Barely two minutes later and with the Maltese still struggling to understand what is happening, Duda headed home from close range a Suslov cross from the right. On 16 minutes Matthew Guillaumier lost possession of the ball in midfield and Rusnak scored a beauty placing the ball far beyond Bonello’s reach.

If this was a boxing contest the referee would have rightly so stopped the contest, but unfortunately their were still 75 minutes left to play. Slovakia continued with their unexpected training spin with the locals mere spectators.

On the resumption Ryan Camenzuli received a second booking and on 51 minutes Teuma received two yellows in quick succession. The only thing that remained now was to see how much Slovakia can score. They tried their best but could only score three more times, thanks mainly to Bonello’s string of saves, some of which stunning ones.

But still Duda added two more and De Marco scored a few seconds after making his national team debut. The final whistle was a great relief for all Maltese present at the National Stadium.

Our hopes of a brighter future for the national team, hopes that gained momentum in the past months, were simply thrown away in the last four days. And the future looks dull.