Malta drew with Ukraine - Rowen Muscat gives his views

by Ayrton Galea - 8th October 2011

The Under 21 National side achieved another positive 2-2 draw against Ukraine with two Birkirkara players, Terence Vella and Rowen Muscat, scoring the goals for Malta.

Ukraine took the lead on the 10th minute thanks to Roman Bezus but their lead was short lived as Malta equalised just one minute later thanks to Birkirkara's striker Terence Vella.

If Ukraine's lead was short lived, so was the Maltese equaliser as Ukraine went ahead once again on the 13 minute as Bezus scored the second goal by beating goalkeeper Steve Sultana.

When the match seemed lost for the Maltese side, Rowen Muscat grabbed the equalising goal thanks to a cute lob to help Malta grab another important.

We talked with the Under 21 National Team's captain Rowen Muscat, about this match. He told us, "It was a positive and important match. It was positive because thanks to our coach Ray Farrugia, at last we changed our mentality that when we concede a goal we give up. In these matches we showed that we changed the mentality. In the match against Lithuania we turned a defeat into a win and as well against Ukraine where we continued pressing until we grabbed a point. The game was very important because with this result we gave another reply to those teams who don't show us respect.”

Rowen's late strike was not the first one in this competition as he scored the second goal in the dying minutes of the previous game. Rowen's comments for this were, "To play with the National it is already an honour for every player, let alone scoring important goals like these against Latvia and Ukraine. I will never forget these matches because these are matches that every players wants to play and score in. "

Finally we asked Rowen how the squad is preparing for the next match against Lithuania. Rowen replied, "We already forgot the match against Ukraine and started preparing for the next match against Lithuania because in this match I believe that we can once again win maximum points and we will be back in the second place. We already started preparing physically and mentally for this match that can write history for Malta. In closing I want to thank and applaud all the players and staff that are working hard to reach this success. "

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