Malta conclude Amateur tournament with defeat against Belgrade

04.10.2022
UEFA REGIONS CUP 2023
INTERMEDIATE ROUND GROUP 8, MATCH 2

BELGRADE AMATEURS…3
MALTA AMATEURS…0
(HT 0-0)

1-0 Saric 50, 2-0 Gavrilovic 62, Vukovic (pen), 71.

After being defeated by the odd goal in three last Wednesday against a Split selection, the Malta national amateur team had to travel to Zadar to conclude their Regions Cup commitments, a mini-tournament held in the Split region in Croatia. This time, a selection of Belgrade amateurs defeated Malta with three second half goals, winning the group on goal-average as the match last Saturday between the Split and Belgrade amateurs ended in a 1-1 draw.

The selection of coach Alfred Attard were supposed to play an Ukrainian selection last Saturday, but the team of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast did not manage to travel to Croatia due to VISA problems and therefore the group consisted of three teams only. Therefore, the match last Saturday against the Ukrainians was awarded as a walk-over for Malta.

During the first 30 minutes, Malta played well against the strong Serbs, with the first goal scoring opportunity arriving on nine minutes with Andre-Joe Cutajar missing target after a neat built-up. Play was rather balanced and Jonathan Grech had to be called into action for the first time just before the half hour mark with a save on a Nemanja Vukovic attempt. This was during a period when the Belgrade team started to push on the accelerator as three minutes later, Aleksa Paic hit the woodwork while Grech performed another great save on a Marko Gavrilovic goal attempt on 34 minutes. Grech was called back in action twice more before the break, saving attempts by Marko Gavrilovic and Dimirtije Filipovic.

Five minutes after the re-start, Malta succumbed to the pressure when Milos Saric rounded off a precise Gavrilovic pass to break the deadlock. Just after the hour, Gavrilovic himself added the second goal in the rebound for the Belgrade selection while the referee awarded a penalty to the Serbs on 71 minutes when Daniel Sant conceded a foul on Gavrilovic, with Vukovic beating Grech from 11-meters. Gavrilovic could have added a fourth on 79 minutes but hit the post from an ideal position. With two minutes regular time left, Shalon Diacono was close to make a consolation goal for Malta but the Serbian substitute goalkeeper made a fine save.

‘’Let me make it clear that I’m not happy with both results’’, said coach Alfred Attard when asked for some comments, ‘’But when you consider that we had such a short time to prepare this group for these international games, then I need to say that, overall, I am satisfied with the performances of the players, especially the first match and even the first half of the second  match’’, Attard continued. ‘’We were beaten in the mid 15 mins of the second half with three goals, taking into consideration that we had much better opponents in front of us. Besides all this, the group had the opportunity to work together in a professional setup for these last ten days. I’m sure that all players gained a lot from this experience. The tournament was of great level and together with the UEFA organization that taught us a lot’’, concluded the Malta national amateur team coach.

The group will be back in Malta tomorrow morning.

Belgrade Amateurs
Aleksandar Bojovic (Filip Novakovic 77), Ognjen Marinkovic, Aleksa Paic (Djordje Stankovic 83), Dimirtije Filipovic, Mladen Miljkovic, Uros Pavlovic (Aleksa Raskovic 83), Miljan Toskovic, Marko Gavrilovic, Boris Jankovic (Dimitrije Gavrilovic 72), Nemanja Vukovic, Milos Saric (Aleksandar Bakovic 77)
Coach: Goran Jankovic

Malta Amateurs
Jonathan Grech (Leon Seisun 83), Dylan Micallef, Daniel Sant, Gianluca Bugeja, Josmar Galea (Damon Hili 65), Andrea Azzopardi (Ismael Colombo 76), Samuel Buhagiar, Josuel Spiteri (Thomas Giles 65), Shalon Diacono, Andre-Joe Cutajar, Matthew Schembri (Saturday Nanapere 65)
Coach: Alfred Attard

Referee
Jonathan Lardot (Belgium)