Malta left it late to earn their second win in two games away to San Marino, showing resilience to come from behind with two second-half goals.
The match was off to a feisty start, with both teams looking to win their duels in midfield, leading to a number of fouls early on.
The first chance of the game came in the 12th minute, when a corner from Zak Barbara was not cleared away by the San Marino defence, with the ball falling to Daniel Letherby, yet he struggled to make a clean contact with the ball, and his strike went well wide.
However, San Marino were the ones to take the lead, after Malta lost the ball in midfield in the 16th minute. The San Marino forward strung a couple of neat passes together before finding Gabriel Capicchioni, who slotted the ball past Luca Camilleri to open the scoring.
The first-half was stop-start following that, with not many chances for either side.
Malta did have an opportunity to equalise right before half-time, as Joshua Pitts carved some space down the left-wing, before cutting inside, yet his shot was saved by Jacopo Casadei.
At the break, the score was 1-0 to the home side, with Malta having work to do in the second-half.
Following the break, Malta came out firing, looking to bounce back, with Coach Davide Mazzotta making four changes at the break.
It did not take long for Malta to get their equaliser, as some excellent build-up play down the right saw Isaiah Chukunyere break free from his marker, before clipping the ball to Nicholas Agius, who ran through and tucked it past Casadei to make it 1-1.
Malta continued to control the play, reducing San Marino to set-pieces, but the home side did come close in the 74th minute, as Capicchioni hit a wonderful free-kick that rattled the bar, with the score remaining level.
The away side came close to taking the lead in the 84th minute, when a quick counter led to the ball falling to Tristan Viviani at the edge of the penalty area, and the Maltese midfielder hit a thunderous strike, but it sailed just over the bar.
Malta struck late and found the winner in the 89th minute, with Gunner Elliott performing a quick turn on the left-hand side, before beating his marker and finding Alfie Bridgman, who with a brilliant left-footed shot, found the corner of the net.
Malta kept on pushing in search of another goal, keeping San Marino out of their half. The match finished 2-1 to Malta, meaning Coach Mazzotta’s side came away with two wins from their two international friendlies in San Marino, capping off an impressive window.
San Marino
12 Jacopo Casadei (GK), 2 Federico Domeniconi (3 Simone Gasperoni 53’), 5 Riccardo Zafferani, 8 Marco Casadei (23 Simone Tamagnini 53’), 9 Gabriel Capicchioni (6 Arda Kaan Yazici 81’), 10 Marco Gasperoni (C), 13 Nicolo Chiaruzzi, 14 Tommy Cervellini (16 Alessandro Mularoni 81’), 19 Giulio Maria Bugli (4 Enea Della Balda 53’), 21 Alberto Guerra (7 Simone Riccardi 53’), 22 Bartolomeo Riggioni
Coach: Matteo Cecchetti
Malta
1 Luca Camilleri (GK) (23 Karl Sargent 46’), 2 Kean Scicluna (16 Jake Micallef 82’), 4 Finley Ging (13 Malik Amin 82’), 5 Sven Xerri, 6 Andy Borg (C) (20 Jake Grech 82’), 7 Isaiah Chukunyere (14 Gunner Elliott 56’) , 8 Joshua Pitts, 9 Nicholas Agius (11 Nathan Cross 56’), 10 Daniel Letherby (17 Tristan Viviani 46’), 19 Benjamin Hili (3 Mattias Ellul 46’), 21 Zak Barbara (22 Brooklyn Borg 46’)
Coach: Davide Mazzotta
Referee: Michele Beltrano
Yellow cards: Tommy Cervellini (SMR), Gabriel Capicchioni (SMR), Simone Tamagnini (SMR), Daniel Letherby (MLT), Nicholas Agius (MLT), Tristan Viviani (MLT)
