MALTA            13

ISRAEL            11

(2-5, 3-3, 3-2, 5-1)

The Malta waterpolo national team secured an historic first-ever victory in the group stages of a European Championship in the most dramatic of circumstances when they came back from three goals down to stun Israel in Zagreb.

It looked as though it was not going to be Malta’s day after a poor first session showing which saw the team lose Mark Castillo for brutality and slump 5-2 behind after a sloppy defensive display.

But despite having the odds stacked firmly against them, the Maltese youngsters kept believing and managed to gradually to reduce Israel’s advantage to one goal at the start of the final session.

And then, the Maltese clicked top gear as they managed to turn the game around through the scoring prowess of Sam Gialanze, Jake Muscat and Jayden Cutajar to grab a vital win that ensures that Malta avoids bottom spot in the group for the first time but more importantly have a more favourable draw in the positional play-offs where they hope to at least match the 14th placing attained two years ago.

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.com