Malta enjoy 'moment to savour'

Before last night, Malta had only won two UEFA European Championship qualifiers - against Greece in 1975 and Iceland in 1982. But for the third time in 73 attempts the islanders were victorious yesterday, as a 2-1 victory against Hungary ended a 13-year wait for a competitive triumph.

Celebrations
The 20-year-old Marsaxlokk FC forward Andre Schembri was the hero with his first two goals for his country on his fifth international appearance. He put Malta ahead on 14 minutes in Ta'Qali but Sándor Torghelle swiftly equalised. Hungary were reduced to ten men when Vilmos Vanczák was sent off and, early in the second half, Schembri scored again to spark a night of celebrations. Captain Gilbert Agius was especially jubilant, having last been part of a competitive international victory in 1995 against Luxembourg at Under-21 level.

Significant
"This is a significant win which has been yearned for for a long time," Agius told uefa.com. "In my view Malta were the best team throughout the whole 90 minutes. To be honest the 2-1 scoreline does not really reflect how many chances we created during the match. We have got to keep our feet on the ground. Still, this is a moment to savour with pride for Malta."

'Overjoyed'
Malta coach Dušan Fitzel was part of the technical team that led his native Czech Republic to the 2002 UEFA European Under-21 Championship title, but has now masterminded a famous result with another nation. "I am so very happy and overjoyed," he said. "Malta created so many goalscoring opportunites that the final result could have easily been 3-1 or 4-1. Michael Mifsud had a very good match creating so many chances for himself and for his colleagues, one of which was taken by Schembri."

Schembri praised
Fitzel had special praise for the goalscoring hero and the local fans, saying: "I am very pleased for Schembri, who I reckon is the future of Maltese football. I also want to thank the Malta squad for this hard-fought and excellent performance against Hungary and also for the tremendous support we received today from the home crowd." Malta have overtaken Hungary to go fifth in UEFA EURO 2008™ Group C, and can barely wait until March when they go to Moldova and then welcome a team with some unhappy memories of the island, Greece.