Malta’s Under-20 men’s water polo national team secured a dramatic 19-18 shoot-out victory over Turkey to book their place in the positional play-off final at the European Championship finals in Varna, Bulgaria.
Milan Cirovic’s team showed tremendous resilience after falling four goals behind at half-time, producing an outstanding comeback in the final two sessions before eventually prevailing in the shoot-out.
Malta had entered the match determined to respond following Thursday’s narrow 17-15 defeat to Montenegro. However, Turkey made the stronger start and quickly established a three-goal advantage before Luigi Dimech pulled one back for Malta.
The Turks continued to dominate in the second session, making the most of their attacking opportunities to add four further goals.
Malta attempted to stay in contention, with Dimech and Jayden Cutajar finding the net, but Turkey maintained a four-goal advantage at the interval, leading 7-3.
The Maltese side produced a much-improved display in the third quarter, particularly in attack, as they began to close the gap.
Julian Valletta, Elijah Schembri, who scored twice in the session, and Jayden Cassar were on target as Malta outscored Turkey and reduced the deficit to 11-8 heading into the final quarter.
With their European Championship campaign on the line, Malta produced a remarkable final session.
Cutajar and Enrico Mallia scored early to reduce the deficit to 12-10, before Luigi Dimech, Philip Tabone and Sam Engerer continued the comeback to bring Malta within a single goal at 14-13.
The dramatic turnaround was completed with less than 13 seconds remaining.
Malta were awarded a penalty and Cutajar took responsibility, confidently finding the net to level the score and force a penalty shoot-out.
Both teams converted their opening four penalties, leaving the contest finely balanced.
Malta goalkeeper Andreas Micallef then produced the decisive moment, saving Efe Naipoglu’s attempt.
Cutajar stepped up once again and converted Malta’s final penalty to seal a memorable 19-18 victory.
The result sends Malta into the positional play-off final, where they will face either France or the Netherlands.
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