Malta start against France in Euro qualifiers

The opening matches from the Euro 2012 Preliminary Tournament will be played today at the Cottonera Sports Complex as the Maltese national team will be looking to produce a creditable showing overall even though a passage to the next round looks to be a tall order for Vic Hermans’s team.

Group D is composed of Malta, Lithuania, Bulgaria and France.

The winner from this section will progress to the qualifying round and play holders Spain, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in Group One.

In the build-up to this tournament, Malta played two warm-up matches against Norway earlier this month. The Scandinavians proved too strong an opponent for the locals who lost 2-7 and 0-6.

Futsal is still in its developing stages in Malta but significant progress has already been achieved with the national leagues catering for an encouraging number of teams in various divisions.

Recently, the Maltese national team also recorded their first victory on the international scene when beating Palestine 2-1 in the Mediterranean tournament, played in Libya.

Hermans sounded cautious, however, when addressing the media earlier this month.

“We’re all keen for Malta to win our first competitive match but we must be realistic,” he was quoted as saying.

“Winning is not all and the most important thing is for the players to stay positive. Our priority is to enhance the team’s confidence and motivate players to higher levels.”

Malta’s first match today is against France. The curtain-raiser will be played between Lithuania and Bulgaria at 4.30 p.m.

Fixtures
Today – 16.30 Lithuania vs Bulgaria; 20.00 France vs Malta.
Tomorrow – 18.00 France vs Lithuania; 20.00 Malta vs Bulgaria.
Monday – 18.00 Bulgaria vs France; 20.00 Malta vs Lithuania.