Jurgen Degabriele’s third international goal for the national team guided Devis Mangia’s team past Azerbaijan to open the 2022 calendar with a victory.
The victory puts the Maltese side in a good place as they start to step up their preparations for June’s new Nations League edition.
In three months’ time, Malta will be facing San Marino twice in the space of a week and play against either Cyprus and Estonia – who fired blanks in Thursday’s first leg – in a Nations League Group D campaign where Mangia’s side is expected to perform well and challenge for League C promotion.
Just four European teams sit behind Malta – ranked 174th – in the FIFA rankings – Liechtenstein and Gibraltar against whom Mangia has picked up a win, San Marino who will face Malta twice in June and Moldova who Mangia has yet to play against.