The 1969-70 football season was rather uneventful as far as the national team was concerned.
In fact, the full Malta side played only one friendly international against Luxembourg, a small country more or less of our standard in football terms.
There were other activities of a lesser level which kept national coach Salvu Cuschieri busy. The National XI prepared for the Luxembourg encounter with a friendly match against the RAF XI.
By this time, the British Services stationed in Malta had been drastically cut down by run-downs.
However, helped by enlisted Maltese personnel, they could still put together good representative teams capable of giving the national team a good match practice.
The MFA XI beat RAF XI 4-3 on December 10, 1969 in a very entertaining game which left the couple of dozen spectators at the stadium quite satisfied.
As a football nation, Luxembourg is certainly not of the level of the big European nations.
However, in the early 1960s, when football in Malta was still played on the hard, sandy pitch of the Empire Stadium, Luxembourg had a good football infrastructure and its league was well organised.
Therefore, when it became known that Malta were going to play a friendly match against Luxembourg at home on January 4, 1970 the news generated a lot of interest.
The Maltese fans were already familiar with football in Luxembourg following the visit of US Rumelange who were eliminated by Sliema Wanderers in the first round of the 1968-69 European Champions Cup.
Luxembourg were widely expected to give a stern challenge to our improving national team.
On the day, however, things did not work out exactly as predicted but all the same it was a positive afternoon for Malta.
Spurred on by one of the biggest crowds of the season, Malta took a deserved lead in the final 10 minutes to force a 1-1 draw in a game which the locals dominated from start to finish.
Luxembourg were, more or less, of the same level as the Maltese team and they did not play any spectacular football. The Maltese were technically and territorially superior but they were easily put off their game by the rather tough tackling of the visitors.
The Maltese attacked from the word go but after only eight minutes, Luxembourg opened the scoring. Hoffman flicked home a free-kick by Schmidt before keeper Freddie Mizzi could cover his post.
The rest of the game featured constant attacks and missed chances by the home team.
On 62 minutes, Cardoni pushed Edward Aquilina. The latter retaliated and Italian referee D’Agostini ordered both players off the field. From the terraces, the incident didn’t seem serious enough to merit expulsion but the referee was adamant in his decision.
As the minutes ticked away, the Maltese started to get nervous but 10 minutes from time Johnnie Privitera released Joe Cini who beat a defender before shooting home from close range.
The crowd went wild with joy and incited the players to go for the ‘kill’ but, despite the intensifying pressure, Luxembourg managed to get away with a draw which they certainly did not deserve.