Fitzel at pains to find positives

National coach Dusan Fitzel was anything but satisfied with the outcome of yesterday's World Cup draw in Durban after Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary and Albania were unveiled as Malta's opponents in Group One. "It's a very, very tough draw for us,"...

National coach Dusan Fitzel was anything but satisfied with the outcome of yesterday's World Cup draw in Durban after Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary and Albania were unveiled as Malta's opponents in Group One.

"It's a very, very tough draw for us," Fitzel told The Times. "This qualifying campaign will be much harder than Euro 2008.

"There are three top teams in our group and two of these, Sweden and Denmark, are from Scandinavia. We all know that Malta always find it hard to cope with Nordic teams.

"Portugal have always been one of the best teams in Europe, Hungary will surely not underestimate us after we surprised them at Ta' Qali last year and Albania beat us in a friendly last summer.

"Our chances of getting points from this group are slim but then football is unpredictable."

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