Malta crave good showing vs Swedes

Regardless of the outcome of last Saturday's World Cup qualifier between Hungary and Sweden, the task awaiting Malta this evening was always seen as being gargantuan but Zlatan Ibrahimovic's stoppage-time winner in Budapest has further complicated matters for our national team.

Ibrahimovic's fortunate goal ensured that Sweden, 2-1 winners over Hungary, come into today's match with their morale sky-high and ultra motivated to put Malta to the sword in order to stay in the hunt for a top-two finish in Group One.

Scepticism about Malta's chances of making life difficult for Sweden on home soil has increased after Friday's 2-0 defeat to Cape Verde but, as the old cliché says, every game has a different story, and the worst thing the Maltese can do is to concede defeat before a ball has been kicked.

Malta coach John Buttigieg has repeated his mantra that his players must stay focused for the entire match to improve their hopes of grinding out a positive result.

"This is our second international match in five days," Buttigieg told reporters at the Grand Hotel Excelsior.

"The Sweden match is a World Cup qualifier and it's going to be much more difficult than the game we played last week.

"Having reviewed our friendly against Cape Verde, I think that our performance was not as poor as the result might suggest.

"Apart from the two goals, neither team managed to create scoring chances. There is no doubt that we must play better and maintain our focus this time.

"Sweden gained a dramatic win over Hungary and their chances of qualifying for the World Cup have improved significantly."

Buttigieg, who was at the Ferenc Puskas Stadium for last Saturday's qualifier, regards Ibrahimovic as Sweden's most dangerous player but he has no plans to devise a defensive strategy to try and limit the impact of the Barcelona forward.

"Ibrahimovic is a world-class player but I will not adopt a special plan to counter him," Buttigieg remarked.

"That said, our players must be extra careful when defending against him."

Like his predecessors, Buttigieg put Malta's perennial troubles to cope with Scandinavian teams down to genetics.

"It's a physical thing," Buttigieg remarked.

"Our players are not very tall and we normally have problems to deal with long balls, especially in set-piece situations."

Typically, Buttigieg gave nothing away about his team but the indications are that there will be some changes.

Captain Gilbert Agius and Alex Muscat are in line to start after both recuperated from the minor injuries that kept them out of Friday's upset to Cape Verde.

With veteran goalkeeper Mario Muscat also earning a recall, Buttigieg had to drop three players from the squad. His axe fell on Andrei Agius, Justin Haber and Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza with Buttigieg declaring yesterday that their omission was for "technical reasons".

Andrew Hogg looks favourite to start in goal with defender Brian Said also set to keep his place. Jonathan Caruana and Kenneth Scicluna are vying for the other centre-half role.

At right-back, Alex Muscat is likely to be preferred to Manny Muscat while the contenders for the left-back role are Clayton Failla, Shaun Bajada and Ian Azzopardi.

Gilbert Agius and Jamie Pace will resume their central midfield partnership but there are question marks about which players will fill the other positions.

Kevin Sammut and Roderick Briffa are the two main candidates for the right-wing role and Andrew Cohen is likely to be confirmed on the left.

Buttigieg is expected to stick with Michael Mifsud in attack and Andrè Schembri is also likely to stay in the team despite his below par performances in the last two outings.

The Malta coach acknowledged that Schembri's form has dipped in the last month and suggested that SK Kaernten's disastrous start in the Austrian league may have dented his confidence.

"Schembri has just moved to a new club," Buttigieg said.

"His morale may be low because his team have had a bad start to the season.

"Andrè hasn't shown his best form for Malta in the last two friendlies but all players go through difficult periods."

Malta's tame capitulation to Cape Verde didn't help to raise the team's spirits ahead of today's clash but Buttigieg urged his players to put Friday's setback behind them.

"The players were obviously disappointed after the Cape Verde game," Buttigieg said.

"We all were because nobody likes to lose but our focus should now be on Sweden."

Having bagged only one point from eight qualifiers, Malta's prospects of increasing their total in the final two matches look very remote, what with Sweden and Portugal the team's remaining opponents.

Sweden handed Malta a 4-0 drubbing in Gothenburg last June and Portugal won by the same scoreline at the National Stadium last year.

Although Buttigieg accepts that Malta's chances of adding to their meagre one-point tally are slender, he insisted that the players should not give up hope.

"In eight matches, we have obtained only one point," Buttigieg said.

"It's difficult for us to get something from the remaining two qualifiers but we should not give up.

"Sweden and Portugal are arguably the strongest teams in the group but we have to believe in our capabilities."