Ahead of the 2014 Winter League which starts next Friday, the attention of the Maltese waterpolo followers will turn to today’s first leg in Montpellier (start: 8.30pm) valid for the Euro 2014 double-header play-off between France and Malta.
Having finished as the best runners-up in the final qualification round in November, our national team replaced Macedonia who were disqualified from the competition by LEN in December. The winners of the five other ties will proceed to the 12-team finals to be staged later this year in Budapest.
The Maltese will have a mountain to climb against what is regarded as the best French team in recent years.
In fact, France emerged as the top side in the last qualifying tournament, ahead of Slovakia and Russia, two other strong nations.
Malta coach Karl Izzo is under no illusion. He is aware of his team’s limitations even if the players did a very good job when finishing third in their group in Portugal last November and seventh overall from 16 countries, thus earning the right to have another bite at the cherry.
Izzo is confident that the team will perform to the best of their ability despite again having to play out of season.
“The players will certainly put everything into it even if the odds are heavily stacked against them,” he said.
“They worked very hard during these winter months both physically and tactically. Preparation for this play-off had to start earlier than usual in order to offset as much as possible the out-of-season handicap.
“As for France, they are midway through their season and have just taken part in two warm-up tournaments in Turkey and Spain. They are giving a lot of importance to this game.”
Izzo said that he has included Clint Mercieca in his squad, while Michele Stellini and Dean Camilleri have returned after missing the qualifiers in Portugal.
The team hinges round captain Niki Lanzon, Steve Camilleri, Matthew Zammit and goalkeeper Alan Borg Cole, with all the other components fitting into the tactical roles set by Izzo.
“A solid rearguard is necessary and should be the springboard for fast breaks,” Izzo reckoned.
“Goals converted on temporary numerical superiority could give the team much needed confidence, while man-down sets, if well-deployed, may prevent, or at least restrict, our opponents from scoring. Chances taken or missed would take their toll in the end.”
Our team’s chief goal-getters, Camilleri and Zammit, will shoulder most of the scoring responsibility, with the former trying to continue where he left off last season as Malta’s top striker.
Incidentally, Camilleri’s presence in the Malta line-up seemed to be in doubt some weeks ago when Rari Nantes Bogliasco’s semi-final commitments in the Coppa Italia clashed with Malta’s matches against France.
Luckily, the Coppa fixtures were re-scheduled and that gave Camilleri the chance to do duty for Malta.
Camilleri will be a feared man as much as he is in Italy. The French are well aware of his qualities.
Malta squad
Alan Borg Cole, Niki Lanzon, Michele Stellini, Steve Camilleri, Jordan Camilleri and Clint Mercieca (all Neptunes); Mark Meli, John Brownrigg, Jerome Gabarretta and Alex Attard (all Sliema); Dean Camilleri, Matthew Zammit and Dino Zammit (all San Ġiljan).