Uncapped Caruana in squad for CAR warm-up

Christian Caruana will be upbeat about his chances of making his first senior appearance for Malta after being named in John Buttigieg’s 18-man squad for Wednesday’s friendly against the Central African Republic at the National Stadium (8.30 p.m.)

The Floriana playmaker is the only uncapped player in the selection as Buttigieg largely kept faith with his tried and trusted personnel for a warm-up game that comes just three weeks before Malta host Croatia in a Euro 2012 Group F qualifier.

Caruana has been training with the national squad for several months but this is the first time he has been included in the final 18-man list.

Jamie Pace has also been recalled after the Valletta midfielder had been left out of the travelling party for the qualifier against Greece, which Malta lost 3-1 in June.

Left-back Carlo Mamo is also making a return after missing the Greece game as he got married on matchday.

Birkirkara winger Trevor Cilia is back in the reckoning after a string of injuries undermined his chances of keeping his place in the Malta squad for much of the past 12 months.

The omission of Valletta’s Steve Borg is perhaps the only notable surprise in Buttigieg’s selection yesterday.

The robust defender has yet to win his first cap at senior level but his solid performances in the heart of Valletta’s reaguard in the last two seasons and the shortage of centre-halves in the national squad suggested that Borg was in line to make the final squad for the CAR friendly.

Buttigieg deemed otherwise as, besides his first-choice defenders Jonathan Caruana, of Valletta, and Andrei Agius, he opted for Birkirkara’s Joseph Zerafa.

Gareth Sciberras, who this summer joined Birkirkara from Marsaxlokk, has also been occasionally deployed at centre-half for club and country and that was perhaps one of the reasons why Buttigieg felt he had enough cover at the back.

Apart from Borg, the other six players who were dropped from the provisional 25-man squad are goalkeeper Reuben Gauci, Kenneth Scicluna, Alex Muscat, who is recovering from a dislocated shoulder, Paul Fenech, John Mintoff and Ivan Woods.

Buttigieg has picked four foreign-based players, namely, goalkeeper Justin Haber, now with Greek club Kerkyra, forward Andrè Schembri, of Olympiakos Volos, defender Agius, who has returned to Serie C2 side AS Melfi, and Sheffield United striker Daniel Bogdanovic.

Bogdanovic came on as a late substitute in Sheffield United’s 2-0 win at Oldham in their League One opener on Saturday.

Australia-based midfielder John Hutchinson, who last month joined Chinese Super League side Chengdu Blades on a short-term deal, has not been selected for this friendly.

Wing-back Clayton Failla will have been delighted to learn that he had retained his place in the Malta squad.

The former player of the year is hoping to resolve the uncertainty over his club future after falling out of favour at Sliema Wanderers.

Hibs have been in negotiations with Sliema to take Failla back to the club he helped to win the Premier League title in 2008/09 before leaving for Sliema.

Malta U-17

Malta’s Under-17 team went down 2-1 to Romania in their final match from an international friendly tournament in Hungary yesterday.

Luke Montebello, who has just sealed a move to Livorno, scored Malta’s goal from a penalty.

It was the U-17 team’s third defeat in as many matches after an opening 2-1 loss to Hungary and a 5-0 rout to Slovakia.

Senior Malta squad
Goalkeepers: J. Haber (Kerkyra), A. Hogg (Valletta).
Defenders: A. Agius (AS Melfi), R. Briffa (Valletta), J. Caruana (Valletta), C. Failla (Sliema Wanderers), E. Herrera (Hibernians), C. Mamo (Marsaxlokk), J. Zerafa (Birkirkara).
Midfielders: T. Cilia (Birkirkara), R. Fenech (Valletta), J. Pace (Valletta), G. Sciberras (Birkirkara).
Forwards: A. Cohen (Hibs), M. Mifsud (Valletta), C. Caruana (Floriana), A. Schembri (O. Volos), D. Bogdanovic (Sheffield Utd).