Malta coach Pietro Ghedin has backed his players to build on their positive performance in last month’s Euro2016 against Croatia when they meet Norway tomorrow at the national stadium (kick-off time 8.45pm).

“As always it will be a tough match but I’m confident,” Ghedin told a news conference this afternoon.

“The players are in a good condition and looked very motivated in training I believe we will have a good match.”

Marta started their Euro2016 qualifying campaign with a 2-0 defeat away to Croatia but the team’s performance in Zagreb was very positive especially considering that they played with 10-men for 60 minutes after defender Steve Borg was sent off. For their part, Norway lost 2-0 at home to Italy, who play Malta on Monday.

Ghedin has no injury problems but must make one change from the Croatia game as Borg starts a three-match suspension. Ghedin has yet to name his formation but he confirmed that he will stick with most of the players who started the game in Croatia.

Asked about the strength of the Norwegian team, also in the context of Malta’s difficulties when facing Scandinavian sides, Ghedin said:

“Norway has a strong team. They are very physical and run for the entire 90 minutes. That is the biggest challenge we will be facing. We need to run for the entire game. If we are static for 10 minutes we will have problems.”

There have been suggestions that the Malta players may be distracted by the much awaited game against Italy but Ghedin insisted that his team are only focusing on their clash with Norway.

“I don’t think the game against Norway will have any effect on the following qualifier against Italy.

“We will have two days to think and prepare for the Italy game but at the moment we are only focusing on Norway.

“I firmly believe that the players are not thinking about Italy,” he said.