Malta 8
France 15
(1-1), (2-4), (4-3), (1-7)
Malta: 1. Jake Tanti, 2. Sam Gialanze (1), 3. Liam Galea (1), 4. James Gambin, 5. Darren Zammit, 6. Matthew Zammit (2)(Captain), 7. Ben Plumpton (2), 8. Nicholas Bugelli, 9. Jeremy Abela, 10. Nikolai Zammit, 11. Benjamin Cachia, 12. Dino Zammit (2), 13. Nicholas Grixti
France: 1. Clement Dubois, 2. David Caumette (2), 3. Ugo Crousillat (1) (Captain), 4. Alexandre Bouet (1), 5. Enzo Khasz (2), 6. Thomas Vernoux (1), 7. Romain Marion-Vernoux (3), 8. Emil Bjorch (1), 9. Mehdi Marzouki (2), 10. Charles Cannone (1), 11. Pierre-Federic Vanpeperstraeta (1), 12. Andrea De Nardi, 13. Hugo Fontani.
Malta’s best performance so far in Split failed to produce a stunning result against France as the Maltese completely collapsed in the fourth and final session to suffer the third successive defeat in Group B of the European championships.
Apart from their best so far in this tournament, national coach Karl Izzo stated after the match that this was arguably Malta’s best ever performance in the history of the European championships.
However the Maltese faded out in the fourth and final session as the full pitch press adopted by our players finally took its toll and the French ran riot in the final session, to win the fraction 7-1 and the game 15-8.
Malta was still in the game till the end of the third session with only one goal separating the two nations.
Malta missed a couple of manups in the final quarter as the result could have been even closer in the end.
Matthew Zammit, Dino Zammit and Ben Plumpton scored a brace each, with the other goals coming from Sam Gialanze and Liam Galea.
Romain Marion-Vernoux was the best scorer of the match with three goals.
Malta thus finished in the last place in the group and will now play for the play-offs for the placings between the 13th and 16th.
Our next match will be Sunday against Slovenia. This a crucial match for the Maltese as a win will mean at least 14th place in the final standings which will the best ever reached by our national team.