Malta Amateurs open UEFA Regions Cup tournament with narrow defeat

28.09.2022
UEFA REGIONS CUP 2023
INTERMEDIATE ROUND GROUP 8, MATCH 1

SPLIT REGION…2
MALTA AMATEURS…1
(HT 2-0)

1-0 Skaric 7, 2-0 Andric 41, 2-1 Cutajar (pen) 65.

The Malta national amateur team kicked off their 2023 Regions Cup commitments with a narrow 2-1 defeat against the Croatian hosts, who are playing with a selection of amateur players hailing from the Split region.

The hosts started he match well and scored an early goal through Pjero Skaric on seven minutes. The Maltese improved, but had to suffer a second goal not long before the half-time break, with Leo Andric drilling past Jonathan Grech in the 41^st minute.

Coach Alfred Attard made two substitutes during half-time which proved to pay dividends immediately, as Malta played a much better second half, settling well and creating a number of chances. On 65 minutes, Josmar Galea was brought down in the box and the referee showed no hesitation to point at the spot with Andre-Joe Cutajar making no mistake to put Malta back into the match.

However, the Maltese did not manage to add a second goal, with Grech making some splendid saves to avoid a third Croatian goal.

The Maltese were supposed to play an Ukrainian selection on Saturday, but the team of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast did not manage to travel to Croatia and therefore this group will only consist of three teams. The Croatians will play a selection of Belgrade amateurs on Saturday, with Malta now meeting the Serbians next Tuesday on the last Match Day of this mini-tournament. This match will be played in Zadar.

This is the 12^th time that Malta is taking part in the UEFA Regions Cup, never missing a tournament. The first time this bi-annual amateur competition was held was in 1999, with the Gozo Region representing Malta in Greece. In fact, Gozo played in five of the previous eleven editions, with the Malta Amateurs representing the country in the other six editions. Malta hosted the group in 2000, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016, the last three in Gozo.

In 2008, the Malta amateurs managed to survive the Preliminary Round with three straight wins, before getting eliminated in the Intermediate Round in 2009, despite beating the Dutch of the Kempen Region, losing the other two. John Camilleri is the Maltese who played the most matches in the Regions Cup, 11, with Ronnie Celeste topping the Maltese all-time top scorers chart with three goals in this competition.

Split Region
Dalibor Kristic, Miro Kresic (Ivan Salinovic 78), Josip Bauk, Stefan Lazarevski, Josip Iveljic, Tin Jukic-Peladic, Roko Juric (Toni Karic 60), Dominik Plavsa, Pjero Skaric (Nikola Cupic 74), Duje Ribicic (Ivan Gilic-Kuku 60), Leo Andric (Luka Vodopija 74).
Coach: Ivan Gudelj

Malta Amateurs
Jonathan Grech, Dylan Micallef, Daniel Sant, Gianluca Bugeja, Andrea Azzopardi (Thomas Giles 85), Samuel Buhagiar, Josuel Spiteri, Shalon Diacono (Ian Montanaro 81), Saturday Nanapere (Josmar Galea 46), Andre-Joe Cutajar, Matthew Schembri (Damon Hili 46)
Coach: Alfred Attard

Referee
Nikola Popov (Bulgaria)