Today, Malta will open their programme of matches in Limerick, in the Republic of Ireland, which is hosting a condensed 20-match friendly tournament played over three days until Sunday.
This will be part of national coach Karl Izzo’s preparation of our team in view of the Commonwealth Championship, to be held in Aberdeen, Scotland, between April 5 and 12.
The countries taking part in the Limerick tournament are Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Scotland, Wales, Czech Republic, Denmark and Malta, the last three being in our group.
It has been a very busy period for the Maltese players who have been engaged almost non-stop in the Euro 2014 Championhsip qualifying rounds from April last year until two weeks ago with the second-leg semi-final play-off against France.
The policy of the ASA has been steadfastly geared towards improving the quality of our players and hence upgrade their continental rankings which have been established at middle-order levels.
This is thanks to former and current technical staff who helped the team perform solidly over past years and continued with recent victories over bigger nations such as Belarus, Portugal, Turkey, Israel, Bulgaria and Switzerland along the path of our European Championships 2014 qualification matches.
Now the target is the Commonwealth Championship which would be yet another gauge of our standings in relation to other respectable opponents.
“The forthcoming event in Limerick is prestigious. It will help the team resume the tapering for the Commonwealth Championship,” Izzo said.
“Unfortunately, Steve Camilleri will be missing as he is injured and this will be a setback.
“Paul Fava, a very strong defender, is included and he will be an asset against physical opponents. Alex Attard had to drop out due to university commitments.”
“As usual we have to overcome seasonal handicaps in international events since our domestic competitions are not in sync with those of other countries,” the Malta coach and his assistant Anthony Farrugia added.
“Nevertheless credit goes to the players for managing to reach acceptable levels of staying power and tactical fine-tuning which we have worked on.
“Our fitness levels will surely be tested to the maximum given that we have to play five matches in three days, two on Friday (today) and Saturday (tomorrow) and one in Sunday’s finals.
“But that should sharpen our physical condition alongside our tactical refinement.”
Malta’s fixtures (Group B)
Today: 13.45 Wales vs Malta; 19.45 Czech Republic vs Malta.
Tomorrow: 12.30 Denmark vs Malta.
The squad
Alan Borg Cole, Niki Lanzon, Jordan Camilleri, Michele Stellini, Clint Mercieca (Neptunes); Mark Meli, Timmy Sullivan, Jerome Gabarretta, John Brownrigg, (Sliema); Dean Camilleri, Matthew Zammit, Dino Zammit, Paul Fava (San Ġiljan).