On Sunday, during the last part of the European Snooker Championship being held in Albufiera, Portugal the group phase of the men’s team category commenced. The three Maltese teams couldn’t have a better start after winning all six games they played, furthermore they made certain of the qualification for the knock out stage.
The team, Malta 1 made up of the local champion, Aaron Busuttil and Chris Peplow won against Poland 2 (Maciej Kusak and Sebastian Milewski), 3-2, and later against Ireland 1 (Mark Gleeson and Benny O’Brien), 3 -1.
Alex Borg and his son Isaac who form Malta 2 wrote a new chapter in the history of the European Billiards & Snooker Association in this edition of this championship. They became the first father and son to compete together during a European Championship for the teams. They won against the only German team (Christian Richter/Lennart Tomei), 3-0 and later in the afternoon they defeated the challenge of Belgium 2 (Steven Termote/Tom Vanwelssenaers) with the final score of 3-1.
Malta 3 of Joseph Casha and Philip Ciantar were the first team to register two victories. Early on they beat France 2 (Fabian Monnin and Brian Ochoiski) 3-1, and later in the afternoon they got even a better result, 3-0 against Poland 3 (Michał Kotiuk/Michał Szubarczyk). In the first frame the Maltese duo were 50 points behind but with a collective effort they turned it in their favor.
On Monday the Maltese teams will have their last fixture of the group and when all matches are concluded, the draw of the qualifying teams will be announced and the Knock Out phase will begin.
The last matches of the three Maltese teams will be the following:
| 11.00 a.m. | Aaron Busuttil/Chris Peplow (Malta 1) | vs | Denys Khmelevskyi/Iulian Boiko (Ukraine 1) |
| 11.00 a.m. | Alex Borg/Isaac Borg (Malta 2) | vs | Greg Casey/Mark Walsh (Ireland 2) |
| 2.30 p.m. | Joseph Casha/Philip Ciantar (Malta 3) | vs | Guilherme Lemos/Francisco Ferreira (Portugal 1) |
