A first-half penalty miss from Viorel Frunza looked to be costly when George Mallia gave Malta the lead against the run of play after 73 minutes.

But Alexandru Epureanu rescued Moldova five minutes from time, before the match came to a stormy conclusion with the dismissals of home striker Serghei Dadu and Malta defender Luke Dimech.

Malta enjoyed a bright start at the Zimbru stadium, and striker Michael Mifsud carved out two good chances in the opening minutes but was denied by the safe hands of goalkeeper Serghei Pascenco.

The Moldovans weathered the early storm however, and Anatolii Teslev's men had the perfect chance to open the scoring in the 23rd minute when Igor Bugaev was hauled down by Roderick Briffa in the area.

Frunza took the spot-kick but failed to get any power behind his effort allowing Malta keeper Justin Haber to make the save low to his left.

The striker's luck did not improve moments later when he pushed a close-range shot past the right post.

And Moldova continued to be wasteful with Sergiu Namasco firing wide, before Haber pulled out all the stops to deny both Bugaev and Vitalia Bordian.

The Moldovans continued to dominate after the restart and Radu Rebeja tried his luck with a 12-yard drive which whizzed over the crossbar.

Haber then produced another save to keep out a free-kick from Frunza, sparking the start of a rare foray for the Maltese into their opponents' half.

And the 73rd-minute charge caught the hosts off guard as Ivan Woods flashed in a cross which was stabbed home by Mallia to give Dusan Fitzel's side an unlikely opening goal.

Moldova had to wait 12 minutes before the equaliser finally arrived courtesy of Epureanu, who smashed home Rebeja's assist from 12 yards.

A tense finale was then marred by the dismissals of Dadu and Dimech, but neither side could produce the winning goal.