MALTA ................. 10 GERMANY .......... 15 (2‑3), (2‑4), (3‑2), (3‑6)

It was predicted to be the tough‐ est game of the group. All in all Germany deserved the win with Zoran Bosic finishing their top scorer with five goals. Malta’s ef‐ fort wasn’t enough as they need to be more consistent during the game especially when playing op‐ ponents like Germany.

As things stand, Germany won their two games, Malta and Ukraine won one game each while Bulgaria lost both games. Malta’s last game against Bulgaria is sup‐ posed to be favourable while Ukraine have a tough nut to crack against Germany. If Malta finishes in second place, goal difference will determine the three best sec‐ ond placed teams.

A perfect start for Malta resulted in a 2‐0 advantage. Liam Galea put Malta in front and only a few sec‐ onds later Nicholas Bugelli stole possession and doubled with a personal action.

Germany soon started to press and making difficult for Malta to impose their game. They not only recovered the margin by scoring twice from man‐up but even took the lead for the first time with a brilliant action from the right side by Maurice Jungling.

Milos Sekulic’s team took control of the game mainly due to their quality but also because of mis‐ takes by Malta. Yannek Chiru from penalty, Denis Strelezkij and Niclas Schipper stretcher the lead to 6‐2.

The second session took longer than expected. Play was stopped for about ten minutes since the post where Malta was attacking was disjointed. About two min‐ utes was left till the end of the ses‐ sion and Malta managed to score twice from Jake Muscat and Jay‐ den Cutajar. Zoran Bozic scored between the two goals as Ger‐ many held a 7‐4 advantage mid‐ way through the game.

Germany was still the better team as things were developing, it was no suprise that the gap got bigger. Jake Tanti saved Malta a couple of times to keep the team in the game.

Suddenly, Jake Muscat’s goal seemed to revitalize Malta. Till the end of the session, Malta clawed another two goals back from Liam Galea and Jamie Gambin to start the last session only two goals adrift.

The brace by Bozic in the begin‐ ning of the last session paved the way for Germany’s win. Malta tried its best to reduce the gap in order to have a better goal differ‐ ence as Germany controlled the final moments.

Malta: J. Tanti, J. Gabarretta, L. Galea (2), J. Gambin (1), J. Cutajar (1), B. Plumpton, J. Muscat (3), B. Cachia, J. Abela (1), N. Zammit (1), A. Fenech, N. Bugelli (1), N. Grixti

Germany: F. Benke, Z. Bozic (5), F. Korbel, M. Cuk (1), F. Schutze, M. Jungling (1), D. Strelezkij (1), Y. Chiru (2), A. Sekulic (2), O. Dollf, N. Schipper (2), M. Gansen, K. Gotz

Referees: Tomas Kaseta (Lithuania), Erwin Schapers (Netherlands)