The third day of the European Snooker Championship being held in Antalya, Turkey was once again dominated by the last group stage matches. Malta was engaged in six matches from which another two victories were achieved.
Six players from seven players had qualified for the second phase in the previous day and most of the matches needed to determine the group winners. Chris Peplow kept the first place in Group I and won his group after winning 3-0 against the Croatian, Filip Bermanec while Aaron Busuttil today suffered a defeat against the Polish, Paweł Rogoza, 3-2 but still won Group N. As winners of the Group both Peplow and Busuttil advanced directly to the last 64 stage which will be played on the best of seven frames.
Philip Ciantar was the other winner, but he was already eliminated after the second day. Ciantar won against the Hungarian, Noel Németh-Nagy, 3-1.
All the other Maltese players turned out on the losing side. Joseph Casha lost, 3-2, in the deciding frame to the Belgian, Sybren Sokolowski. Arthur Cachia finished 3-1 with the Estonian, Andres Petrov while Alex Borg lost, 3-0, to the Englishman, Steven Hallworth who is one of eight players did not lose any frame so far. The Maltese opponents eventually won their respective group.
As a result, after the first round Malta played in 21 games from which the Maltese players won 13.
After all the matches ended and the 86 players who qualified for the second phase became known, the European Billiards and Snooker Association announced the list of all the games in the knockout stages. Those finishing amongst the last 44 in the groups must play in a preliminary and the 22 winners will join the 42 have advanced directly to the last 64 stage.
On the fourth day of the championship on Thursday, apart from these matches, the round of the last 32 will be also played and by the end of the day the last 16 will be known. The games of the Maltese players in the first part of the knockout phase will be these:
| 08:00 | Preliminary | Arthur Cachia | vs | John Sutton (Ireland) |
| 08:00 | Preliminary | Alex Borg | vs | Alain Vergère (Switzerland) |
| 08:00 | Preliminary | Brian Cini | vs | Sam Thomas (Wales) |
| 10:00 | Preliminary | Joseph Casha | vs | Mihai Vladu (Romania) |
| 10:00 | Last 64 | Aaron Busuttil | vs | Umut Dikme (Germany) |
| 14:00 | Last 64 | Chris Peplow | vs | against the winner from the previous round |
| Peplow will play against the winner between Michael Collumb of Scotland or the Dutch, Dennis Van Der Zee | ||||
