Faroe Islands up next for buoyant Maltese

Coach Pierre Brincat will be urging his girls to keep their enthusiasm levels low when the national team play their second match from the 2013 European Championship Preliminary Round at the Centenary Stadium, today.

On Thursday, team captain Rebecca D’Agostino scored a dramatic late winner in Malta’s 1-0 win over Georgia.

Two other matches from the four-team mini-group are in programme today and another encouraging display could inspire the hosts to a second victory at the expense of Faroe Islands who lost their opening match to Armenia (1-0).

Georgia were considered by many as the strongest team in the group but the Maltese, with Rachel Cuschieri orchestrating most of the team’s moves from midfield, were undaunted by the prospect of facing the favourites and were clearly the better team on the day.

Brincat told reporters he was satisfied with the outcome, Malta’s first ever win in a competitive match.

Victory was important, he said, but he also warned his team to concentrate more on the next two matches and to keep their feet firmly on the ground.

Faroe Islands played the entire second half of Thursday’s match against Armenia with a player more following Eleonora Davt-yan’s sending-off, just before half-time.

However, despite seeing more of the ball, the Nordic girls were unable to score an equaliser as Armenia closed all gaps to preserve captain Gayane Kostanyan’s early goal.

Today’s matches will be followed by Tuesday’s remaining qualifiers. Two one-venue mini-tournaments are currently being played, the other one in Macedonia, with the winners progressing to join the 36 highest-ranked qualifying nations in the March 14 group-stage draw.

Next matches

(Centenary Stadium)

Today: 11 a.m. Armenia vs Georgia; 2 p.m. Faroe Islands vs Malta.

Tuesday: 11 a.m. Georgia vs Faroe Islands; 2 p.m. Malta vs Armenia.