Depleted Malta gear up for Latvia clash

Malta will be looking to repeat their bright display in the 1-1 draw against Georgia in tomorrow's Euro 2012 qualifier against Latvia (kick-off 7 p.m.) but injuries to captain Michael Mifsud, Daniel Bogdanovic and Jonathan Caruana have complicated matters for our national team.

John Buttigieg, the Malta coach, admitted that the absence of three important players is a setback for the team but urged their replacements to grab their chance.

"We're missing some players but this is an opportunity for those who haven't been playing regularly to show that they deserve a place in the team," Buttigieg said.

The Malta squad today resumed their preparations for tomorrow's game after arriving in Riga on Wednesday afternoon.

After a light recovery session in the morning, the players trained at the FC Skonto Stadium this evening.

Latvia are second from bottom in Group F but they have gained eight points to Malta's one.

Buttigieg is expecting a tough match tomorrow.

"Latvia's strength lies in their teamwork," Buttigieg said. "They are very strong physically. They have improved in the last two qualifying campaigns and collected a lot of points.

"It's difficult to play against Latvia and this applies to all teams. In their last two qualifiers, they have won against Georgia and drawn with Greece."

Malta striker Andre Schembri said: "We are very eager to play this game and we hope to have a good performance."

As Mifsud is out of tomorrow's game, the captain's armband will be handed over to Roderick Briffa. The policy of the national team is that the most-capped player available captains the side and in the current squad, Briffa holds that honour with a total of 59 appearances for Malta.

Latvia coach Aleksandrs Starkovs said his team will be going all out to win.

"This is our last qualifier at home and we want our fans to be satisfied with our performance," Starkovs said.

"Latvia will be going out to win but the players will have to perform to achieve this because you can't transfer the things you write on the board onto the pitch.

"There's a good atmosphere in the squad the players are ready for this game psychologically."