MALTA 0
ITALY 2
Retegui 14
Pessina 27
MALTA
H. Bonello, C. Attard (63 Z. Muscat), S. Borg, M. Guillaumier, J. Mbong, F. Apap (83 J. Brown), A. Satariano (63 K. Nwoko), J. Corbalan, N. Muscat (76 T. Teuma), Y. Yankam, J. Jones (76 S. Dimech).
ITALY
G. Donnarumma, G. Di Lorenzo (46 M. Darmian), W. Gnonto (21 V. Grifo), M. Pessina, Emerson, G. Scalvini (83 R. Toloi), B. Cristante, M. Politano, M. Retegui (66 G. Scamacca), S. Tonali (66 M. Verratti), A. Romagnoli.
Referee Georgi Kabakov.
Yellow cards Di Lorenzo, Scalvini.
Two goals midway through the first half were enough for Italy to see off Malta at the National Stadium.
Goals from Mateo Retegui and Matteo Pessina in the space of 13 first-half minutes were enough for the European champions to turn the match in their favour and record their first win in Group C of the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
There was never any doubt about Italy’s supremacy on the day, but one just wonders what would have happened had Alex Satariano made the most of an early goalscoring opportunity after only five minutes of play.
Escaped this early scare, Italy took complete control of the match and punished the home side for some poor positioning in defence.
The Maltese struggled to match their opponents’ quality, particularly in midfield where the absence of the not fully-fit Teddy Teuma was sorely felt.
It was Malta's second defeat in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, after losing to North Macedonia last week.
Coach Marcolini will surely have mixed feelings on his team’s performances in the opening qualifiers. One area that he will need to work on is to try and rediscover the team’s sharpness when pushing forward as the team lacked the fluent attacking play displayed in previous months, albeit some key personnel were missing from these matches.
No doubt there is still a lot of work to do for Marcolini ahead of June’s qualifiers against England, at home, and away to Ukraine, but at least he will have more time to inject his tactical ideas to his players.
Read full report on www.sportsdesk.com.mt