Luxol St Andrews beat hosts Sjarmtrollan, of Norway, 8-3 to seal top placing in their qualifying group and book their place in the Main Round of the UEFA Futsal Champions League, which will be played in Prague in October.

It’s an excellent achievement for the Maltese side who after their comfortable victory over San Marino’s FC Fiorentino (5-0) in the opening match, needed to show great resilience to see off the challenge of Chisinau and Sjarmtrollan.

Luxol’s qualification means that Maltese clubs have now progressed to the Main Round of the elite competition in each of the last three editions with the Saints achieving the feat twice with Valletta also progressing last year.

Milos Vucenovic put the home side in front inside the first minute but Luxol levelled soon after through Leanderson,

Everton Veve put the Maltese side ahead on eight minutes before Maicon increased further the lead for the Malta champions.

Five minutes from the interval Slovenian Dejan Bizjak made it 4-1 with an accurate 10-metre shot that had the better of Norwegian keeper Vik, before Celino Alves joining his fellow Brazilians on the scoresheet with the fifth goal just before half-time. 

There was still time nonetheless for Vucenovic to bridge the gap just before the interval. 

Vucenovic completed his hat-trick six minutes into the second half but the Sjarmtrollan player turned from hero to villain after he was shown a straight red card for a rash challenged on Leanderson.

Luxol took full advantage of the numerical superiority, and Maicon completed his hat-trick with two goals in quick succession five minutes from time to all but kill off the hosts’ hopes of victory.

Just before the final buzzer, Dejan Bizjak netted with a fine lob to complete Luxol’s victory.

Other result: Dinamo Chisinau vs FC Fiorentino 9-2.

Final standings: Luxol St.Andrews 9; Dinamo Chisinau 4; Sjarmtrollan 4; FC Fiorentino 0.