MALTA..................................... 22 BULGARIA................................. 4 (4‑0), (9‑1), (3‑0), (6‑3)

Malta will again be amongst the best 16 nations of Europe after confirming a place in next Janu‐ ary’s European Championship to be held in Israel. There were no surprises as in Group B as Malta defeated Ukraine and Bul‐ garia while lost to group favourites Germany. More im‐ portant was to have a large goal difference since only three from four second placed teams would have qualified.

This qualification is the fifth consecutive for Malta, the first for Karl Izzo as President of the ASA and the first for new coach Milan Cirovic, a clear sign that Malta is on the right track fol‐ lowing the four previous quali‐ fications under the helm of Joe Caruana Curran as President and Izzo himself as the coach.

Malta started as Milan Cirovic wanted. A goal by Jamie Gambin in the first attack of the game.

Goals by Nikolai Zammit and a brace by Jake Bonavia (who re‐ placed Jerome Gabarretta) fol‐ lowed as Malta was in total control of the encounter.

The second session was a to‐ tally different story. Malta not only controlled but Bulgaria fell prey to Malta as they scored nine goals in a session to take a more than comfortable 13‐1 lead. Left hander Nikolai Zam‐ mit shined after scoring a hat‐ trick. The three points were secured but the story was not over yet.

Now the main attention was by how much Malta would win the game to have a favourable goal difference. Despite not scoring a lot of goals, it was important not to concede and Jake Tanti wasn’t busy a lot in goal. Jayden Cutajar, Jake Muscat, and Nikolai Zammit stretched the lead to 16‐1.

Malta continued to push for more goals in the last session. Despite committing some indi‐ vidual mistakes, the Maltese players still found the net six times, half of the goals scored by Jake Muscat.

The result was met with a cau‐ tious approach, still not con‐ firmed as a qualified. The confirmation arrived about half an hour later after Portugal’s win was not enough to surpass the goal difference by Malta.

Malta: J. Tanti, J. Bonavia (3), L. Galea (2), J. Gambin (1), J. Cuta‐ jar (3), B. Plumpton (1), J. Mus‐ cat (4), B. Cachia, J. Abela, N. Zammit (6), A. Fenech (1), N. Bugelli (1), N. Grixti

Bulgaria: S. Raykov, M. Metodiev (1), N. Dimitrov, S. Ivanov, M. Valkov, M. Donchev (1), S. Iliev (1), F. Slavov, F. Uzunov, D. Stankov, A. Velkov (1), B. Torosov

Referees: Lukas Krol (Poland), Erwin Schappers (Netherlands)