The Malta futsal team could only score a goal in each half against group favourites France who strolled to an 8-2 win in their opening match of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Kaunas.

Early goals from Reda Rabei, Boumedyen Bensaber and Andrei Gasmi put France 3-0 up before Luke Stivala pulled one back for Malta late in the first half.

The French retained the upperhand, Gasmi adding two more goals to complete his hat-trick while Kevin Ramirez, Abdessamad Mohammed and Azdine Aiogoun also put their name on the scoresheet.

In the closing minutes Dylan Musu scored the second goal for Malta but minutes later he was sent off for a second yellow card.

Today, Malta face hosts Lithuania.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.