Pace breaks Malta's scoring duck but Turkey win 5-1

The Malta women's national team scored their first goal in the World Cup Group Five qualifiers but this was not enough to avoid a fifth successive defeat at the hands of Turkey 5-1 in Trabzon yesterday.

Pierre Brincat's girls travelled to Turkey in high spirits after their commendable showing in last month's 2-0 defeat to the same opponents at the Centenary Stadium.

However, the Turks yesterday made their home advantage count as they raced into a 4-0 lead by the end of the first half.

Cansu Yag netted a brace with goals on seven and 41 minutes with the other goals coming from Yagmur Uraz on 39 minutes and Bilgin Defterli in the second minute of stoppage time.

The Maltese managed to score a consolation goal four minutes into the second half through Natasha Pace, the team's first netting in five matches.

Turkey rounded the scoring when Uraz hit her second of the match on 61 minutes.

Victory lifted Turkey to third in the group on six points while Malta remain anchored to the bottom with no points.

Malta's next match is against England on May 20 at the Centenary Stadium.

Malta: T. Dimech ('46 S. Costantino), N. Pace, R. D'Agostino, D. Theuma, Y. Carabott, R. Cuschieri, R. Chircop, C. Camilleri ('46 C. Vella), K. Saliba ('81 E. Xuereb), K. Parnis, M. Deguara.

Standings: Spain (5-0-1) 15; England (4-0-0) 12; Turkey (2-0-3) 6; Austria (1-0-3) 3; Malta (0-0-5) 0.