Germany lining up Malta friendly - report

Last week, Germany coach Joachim Loew confirmed he will be making his final list for next year's World Cup finals in South Africa at the end of a lucrative friendly against Argentina next March.

After playing Diego Maradona's team in Munich, Loew intends to fine-tune his squad with three other friendlies and one of the opponents could be Malta.

The news was published in yesterday's Pretoria News Weekend.

The South Africa newspaper said Germany are planning three friendlies before the start of the June 11 to July 11 tournament and the warm-up against Malta will be played in Aachen.

Next year, the Malta FA will be marking its 50th year of affiliation with FIFA and UEFA and a programme of activities is currently being prepared to mark the historic date.

Thousands of local fans would be attracted to the stadium if the match had to be played at Ta' Qali but with the World Cup finals approaching fast, Loew would be reluctant to see his players spending extra hours on travelling ahead of the long trip to Johannesburg.

Weeks before Euro 2004 in Portugal, Germany had hosted Malta to a similar warm-up match. On May 27, 2004, Michael Ballack scored four times as Germany beat Malta 7-0 in Freiburg.

Malta hosted Germany to another friendly on September 2, 1998. On that occasion, the visitors won 2-1.

Germany will play two friendly internationals next month, against Chile (November 14) in Cologne and Ivory Coast (November 18) in Gelsenkirchen.