Brincat satisfied with performance

Avoiding a heavy defeat on the country's international debut in women's football must have ranked top on Pierre Brincat's agenda as Malta geared up for their match against Romania in Bucharest last Sunday.

Although Malta lost its opening Group Five qualifier of the European Championship 2003-2005 by three goals to nil, Brincat declared himself satisfied with his team's performance.

"I am particularly satisfied at the way we managed to hold Romania in the first half," Brincat was quoted as saying by www.uefa.com.

"It was our first international game and having seen that Azerbaijan lost 11-0, I was keen not to lose by a large score. Fortunately, my players performed well in the first half," the Malta coach added.

The strong Romanian team were kept at bay by Malta's cautious tactics in the first half, by the end of which, the score was still goalless. However, a goal after 10 minutes of the second half by Teodora Anton set them on their way to victory.

Twenty minutes from time, Florina Deliu made it 2-0 before Alexandra Talnar completed the scoring in the final minute of normal time.

New Romania coach Gheorghe Staicu was not overjoyed by his side's emphatic win.

"I am partially satisfied about our performance," he said.

"Of course, it's a good result, but I was frustrated by the lack of courage and inspiration shown by my players," Staicu added.

Thanks to their victory over Malta, Romania rose to second place in the Group Five standings with four points from two matches. Ireland have five from their opening three games.

The other teams in Group Five are Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Malta's next assignment is an away match in Bosnia-Herzegovina on September 24 before they switch to neighbouring Croatia whom they meet four days later.

Results so far - Bosnia-Herzegovina vs Croatia 0-1; Ireland vs Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-0; Croatia vs Ireland 0-0; Ireland vs Romania 2-2; Romania vs Malta 3-0.

Standings - Ireland 5 (played three matches); Romania 4 (2); Croatia 4 (2); Malta 0 (1); Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 (2).