Scerri hails 'unprecedented' feat

Malta have moved through a round of a UEFA youth tournament for the first time and Under-17 coach Charles Scerri is thrilled.

Dutch defeated
His side opened their qualifying round Group 8 campaign in Andorra by losing 2-0 to Northern Ireland but two days later penalties from Sacha Borg and Dylan D'Agostino gave Malta a 2-1 victory against the Netherlands, the first time a team from the island nation has beaten a Dutch selection in UEFA competition. Malta missed out an automatic place in the Elite round by drawing 0-0 with Andorra but today their progress was confirmed as one of the two third-placed sides in the 13 groups with the best record against the leading pair in their pool.

'Great achievement'
Scerri told uefa.com "Beating Holland was really great, the win gave the players a great boost. It was also important because this game gave us the chance to qualify. The players worked really hard, they rose to the occasion, and followed my instructions. After the game I told my players that although this was a great achievement which gave us the opportunity to qualify, we still had to work hard to beat Andorra.

Preparations
"The game against Andorra, considering that we had a very good chance to qualify, which was unprecedented, was a big occasion for the boys. This created pressure on the players, however the players performed well on the day. Regarding our plans now that we have qualified, what I can say is that we will continue working very hard so that the players are prepared and hope that we will perform accordingly." Malta, whose four points is a national record tally in a UEFA youth mini-tournament, will discover their opposition for the spring's Elite round in the draw on 8 December.