Our U17 national team ended the friendly adventure in Malta with a lone goal defeat by the host players. Macedonia failed to score a goal in the three matches played in this island Mediterranean country.

photo by MFA/Domenic Aquilina: moment of the match

Macedonia had the first big scoring opportunity when in the 16th minute Metodi Maksimov’s shot from just outside the box was well saved by home keeper Miguel Spiteri. Malta’s best chance in the opening 40 minutes came just before the break when Aleksa Jordanov denied a goal to Victor Degiorgio from a close range.

The game winning goal came came in the 57th minute two minutes after Dimitar Todorovski’s out of box shot was saved by substitute keeper Matthias Debono. Malta took a free kick from the right which was met beautifully by Mattia Veselji whose header gave goalkeeper Marko Alchevski, who had replaced Jordanov during half-time, no chance as the ball sailed into the left top corner.

After the home goal the young Macedonians started attacking in order to score an equalizer, but eventually failed. Their best chance came in the stoppage time when Maksimov created space inside the box before unleashing a strong shot which was saved by Debono.

MFA Training Grounds in Ta’ Qali
 Malta U17 – Macedonia U17 1:0 (0:0)
Goals: 57′ Mattia Veselji
Malta: Miguel Spiteri (41′ Matthias Debono); Sheldon Mizzi, Isaac Galea, Owen Spiteri (51′ Gianluca Borg), Ismael Borg (51′ Leo Agius), Gianluca Sciberras (73′ Emerson Camilleri), Karl Mohnani, Nikolai Farrugia Cross (51′ Luke Musu), Victor Degiorgio (41′ Glen Mifsud), Mattia Veselji, Jake Bone (79′ Kurt Briffa).
Macedonia: 1. Aleksa Jordanov (41′ 12. Marko Alchevski); 18. Fisnik Saliu, 17. Filip Andonovski, 5. Aleksandar Gjurkovski, 2. Filip Kostovski; 3. Besfort Arifi, 4. Dimitar Todorovski (C), 15. Redon Kjamili, 7. Behar Fetai; 9. Metodi Maksimov, 8. Ivan Nikolov. Also played: 13. Anatolij Petejchuk, 10. Sava Avramovski, 16. Mario Ilievski, 19. Leonid Ignjatov, 20. Azer Omeragikj.
Referee: Slawomir Olucha 

The players of coach Mario Vujovikj played three friendly matches in Malta but heavily disappointed when it come to scoring goals as they failed to score a single goal. Lets take a look ta the results:

Malta U19 – Macedonia U17 0:0
Malta U17 – Macedonia U17 0:0
Malta U17 – Macedonia U17 1:0

This games were part of the preparations for the upcoming EURO qualifications this fall in Skopje against Spain, Israel and the Faroe Islands. Malta U17 also used to prepare for the same qualifiers in which they are in group with Austria, Bulgaria and Slovenia.