Malta lost their last match in Group Three against Iceland at home.

Women’s national team coach Pierre Brincat has been urging his players to raise their game ahead of this afternoon’s FIFA World Cup Group Three qualifier against Israel at the Centenary Stadium.

Brincat wants his players to atone for last month’s back-to-back defeats away to Switzerland (0-11) and at home to Iceland (0-8). So far the Maltese girls lost five matches and conceded 29 goals in the process with none in favour.

“Without looking into the final scorelines, we didn’t play well in our last game in particular,” Brincat told reporters yesterday.

“Against Iceland, we gave away possession cheaply. I expected a better performance from my players. Now, they have to show us that they are really committed to the national team.”

Given the lower level of opposition compared to leading duo Switzerland and Iceland, Brincat has made no secret of his desire to see his players taking a more offensive approach today.

“Make no mistake, Israel are still a strong side and another tough match awaits the girls,” Brincat explained.

“Against Israel, we need to take the field with the right frame of mind. The players have to be aggressive from the word go. If we sit back and surrender the initiative to our opponents we’ll be paying a price in the end.

“I was at the stadium recently for the Women’s League decider between Birkir-kara and Hibernians and I saw most of the players from both teams looking totally committed and determined not to finish on the losing end.

“I want to see that kind of performance again when the national team play against Israel,” Brincat added.

Veteran Rebecca D’Agostino admitted her frustration in seeing the national team going down so heavily against Iceland.

“This is my 11th year with the national team and we’ve made huge leaps forward since our first few matches on the international scene,” the captain said.

“I’ve been through all this and now we cannot waste all the good work and progress achieved with two under-par performances.

“We’ve been training hard for this match and I’m sure you will see a different team against Israel.”

Israel won two from four group qualifiers, all at home, so far. They beat Malta 2-0 and Serbia 3-1 but lost to group leaders Switzerland (0-5) and Iceland (0-1).

Switzerland are favourites to qualify for the World Cup finals in Canada next year with Iceland currently leading the race for the runners-up spot which means a berth in the play-offs.

Malta: J. Xuereb, S. Farrugia, G. Zahra, C. Zammit, R. D’Agostino, A. Sammut, S. Zammit, R. Cuschieri, E. Xuereb, D. Theuma, Y. Carabott.

Kick-off: 2pm, Centenary Stadium.

Standings: Switzerland (5-1-0) 16; Iceland(3-0-1) 9; Israel (2-0-2) 6; Denmark (1-2-1) 5; Serbia (1-1-3) 4; Malta (0-0-5) 0.