Malta stun Armenia to end 20-year wait
Friday, June 7, 2013
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Armenia 0-1 Malta
An early Michael Mifsud strike, some desperate defending and fine goalkeeping proved enough to earn Malta a first competitive away win in two decades.
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An early Michael Mifsud goal all but ended Armenia's FIFA World Cup qualifying ambitions as Malta registered their first competitive away win in two decades.
The Group B meeting was eight minutes old when André Schembri and Gareth Sciberras combined to release Mifsud, and although Roman Berezovski repelled his initial shot, the Malta captain fired in at the second attempt. It was his 37th goal in international football but as Armenia cranked up the pressure, visiting keeper Justin Haber demanded equal billing in Saturday's headlines.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan soon tested him, and it was a sign of things to come as the home side laid siege to the Maltese penalty area. Haber was unbreakable, however, denying Marcos Pizzelli and Robert Arzumanyan. Half-time substitute Yura Movsisyan added power though neither the FC Spartak Moskva striker nor Artur Sarkisov was unable to convert Armenia's utter dominance into goals.
Defending desperately, Malta hung on to collect their first points of this campaign and their first competitive away victory since triumphing 1-0 in Estonia in May 1993.