NORTHERN IRELAND      3

Jones 2; Whyte 53

McCann 55

MALTA            0

N. IRELAND

B. Peacock- Farrell, C. Brown, C. Cathcart, P. McNair, S. Dallas (86 C. Bradley), J. Thompson (86 A. McCalmont), G. Whyte (73 S. Ferguson), N. M McGinn (62 G. Saville), A. McCann, J. Jones (73 L. Boyce), J. Magennis (62 D. Charles).

MALTA

H. Bonello, K. Shaw, R. Camenzuli, F. Apap (68 J. Borg), A. Agius, J. Mbong (68 D. Xuereb), L. Montebello (61 J. Degabriele), T. Teuma (61 D. Vella), B. Kristensen (81 R. Muscat), A. Satariano (81 J.P. Farrugia), S. Dimech.

Referee Sebastian Gishamer (Austria).

Yellow card Thompson.

The Malta national team produced a sloppy defensive performance as they succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to Northern Ireland in a friendly international in Klagenfurt.

Devis Mangia’s fears of seeing his charges struggle badly in terms of physical fitness against their British opponents turned out to be a reality as the Maltese players managed to withstand the demands of the game for the opening 45 minutes before seeing the team unsurprisingly suffering a dip after the break.

With the majority of the players who took the field for yesterday’s friendly well short of match fitness after they haven’t played a competitive match for almost two months due to COVID-19 restrictions that brought to an end the Premier League inevitably hit hard the team’s hopes of matching their more-quoted opponents.

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