MALTA 6 ITALY 23 (1‑4), (1‑7), (3‑5), (1‑7)

Italy got off to a flying start in their last tournament before the European Championships. Sandro Campagna’s men showed their quality against Malta; two nations with different ambitions for the major tournament to be held next week in Croatia.

Although the result might be explained as a tough defeat for Malta, both coaches might have predicted a similar outcome give or take a couple of goals, as both teams are on a different level. That doesn’t mean both Milan Cirovic and Sandro Campagna will not find nothing to praise or criticise from the performances of their players.

Cirovic’s team is made up of several youngsters in the squad including several players under 20 years of age. On the other hand, Italy’s line‐up was like the team that played in the last European Championship despite having important players such as Edoardo Di Somma and Echenique missing.

The four sessions had practically the same story. Italy winning the swim‐up, scoring a few goals early and in the dying moments of each session while Malta tried to limit the damage.

Andrea Fondelli, Francesco Di Fulvio and Nicholas Presciutti set the pace early in the match with quick three goals.

Milan Cirovic tried to calm things down by calling a time‐out and at the same time had the chance to give clear instructions to his team. Sam Gialanze scored the first goal for Malta but there was still time for Lorenzo Bruni to make it 4‐1 for Italy.

A brace by Giacomo Cannella and goals by Jacopo Alesiani and Vincenzo Dolce all in the first third of the second session, per‐ mitted Italy to open a seven‐goal lead. Malta’s only goal came late in the session from Jake Muscat after a perfect pass by Nicholas Bugelli.

That was only until Vincenzo Dolce made it 11‐2 at the last sec‐ ond of the session from man‐up.

Also considering the gap be‐ tween the teams, both coaches continued to rotate the team in their quest to try and have more clear ideas for their final decision to pick the final team.

Italy continued to show their quality despite Malta’s effort to limit the damage.

Although they lost the session, Malta scored three times from a brilliant goal by Jeremy Abela, Matthias Azzopardi and Liam Galea.

Milan Cirovic even gave an opportunity for reserve goalkeeper Benji Busuttil to play in the last session.

Andrea Fondelli, Giacomo Cannella and Matteo Iocchi Gratta widened the gap to 19‐5 early in the last session.

Jayden Cutajar responded for Malta from a man‐up situation as braces by Fondelli and Di Fulvio rounded off a 23‐6 win for Italy.

Malta: J. Tanti, A. Fenech, L. Galea (1), M. Castillo, S. Gialanze (1), B. Plumpton, J. Muscat (1), J. Cutajar (1), J. Abela (1), N. Zam‐ mit, D. Zammit, N. Bugelli, B, Busuttil, M. Azzopardi (1), J. Cachia

Italy: M. Del Lungo, F. Di Fulvio (3), L. Damonte (1), T. Giannazza (3), A. Fondelli (5), G. Cannella (4), M. Iocchi Gratta (1), A. Velotto, N. Presciutti (1), L. Bruni (1), J. Ale‐ siani (2), V. Dolce (2), G. Nicosia

Referees: Massimo Angileri, Richard Magri

Photo: Domenic Aquilina