The Futsal national team face a tough debut in the Euro 2016 preliminary round when Mark Marlow’s men take on England at the Corradino Sports Pavilion this evening.

Since his appointment as national coach in September, Marlow immediately stepped up preparations for this week’s qualifying tournament which also features Andorra and Latvia.

Marlow told reporters yesterday that the national team’s main goal this week was to win the country’s first points in international competition.

“We are keen to create history and chalk up Malta’s first points in an international futsal tournament,” Marlow said.

“A positive result at this level has always eluded the national team so far but we will give it our best shot. The boys have been training hard for this tournament and we’re all confident that we can produce our best play this week.”

Latvia and England are expected to battle it out for top spot and qualification to the main group while Malta’s best chance of a positive result will be tomorrow against fellow UEFA minnows Andorra.

Marlow is pleased with the team’s participation in the championship even though he would have preferred to have played a few more warm-up matches before competition starts.

“In the build-up we played against Serbia and Gibraltar and we had the chance to try out a few things we practised during training,” Marlow said.

“Still, I think we need more matches of this kind to keep the progress going and for the players to gain more experience at international level.”

Latvia and Andorra will set the ball rolling when they meet in today’s opening match at 5pm.

The top teams from the six preliminary round groups, along with the best runner-up, progress to the main round which features the 21 highest-ranked qualifying contenders.

Group E schedule
Today: 5pm Latvia vs Andorra; 7.30pm Malta vs England.
Tomorrow: 5pm England vs Latvia; 7.30pm Malta vs Andorra.
Saturday: 4pm England vs Andorra: 6.30pm Latvia vs Malta.