Yossi Benayoun scored a hat trick Thursday as Israel started its qualifying campaign for the 2012 European Championship with a 3-1 victory over Malta.
The Israel captain found the net in the seventh, 64th and 75th minutes in Israel coach Luis Fernandez's first competitive game since starting the job in May.
The remaining games in Group F will be played on Friday, with Latvia hosting Croatia and Georgia visiting Greece.
Israel plays at Georgia in its next qualifier on Tuesday, when Malta hosts Latvia and Greece is at Croatia.
Five minutes after having a goal disallowed for handball, Benayoun made it 1-0 by easily slotting the ball past goalkeeper Andrew Hogg.
Despite Israel controlling play for the majority of the first half, Malta equalized when Jamie Pace headed in from a free kick in the 38th minute to stun the home fans. It was Malta's first goal in a competitive game since November 2007.
Benayoun restored Israel's lead from the penalty spot after midfielder Almog Cohen was brought down in the box. The Chelsea midfielder completed his hat tric with 15 minutes left, heading in after Hogg had saved a shot by Gili Vermouth.
The match had been moved forward a day at the request of the Israeli FA, which preferred not to play on Friday during the Jewish Sabbath.
Lineups:
Israel: Dudu Aouate, Tal Ben Haim, Dani Bonder, Biram Kayal (Eyal Golasa, 85), Almog Cohen, Lior Rafaelov, Yossi Benayoun, Eran Zehavi (Gili Vermouth, 51), Ben Sahar (Shlomi Arbeitman, 73), Dedi Ben Dayan, Tamir Cohen.
Malta: Andrew Hogg, Jonathan Caruana, Carlo Mamo, Gareth Sciberras, Andre Agius, Daniel Bogdanovic (Andrew Cohen, 58), Roderick Briffa, Michael Mifsud, Shaun Bajada, Edward Herrera (Emanuel Muscat, 79), Jamie Pace.
