Luxol will be showing a positive attitude and a winning mentality in their debut in the UEFA Futsal Cup when the Maltese national league champions take on Italian champions Pescara, Danish JB Futsal Gentofte and Andorran hosts FC Encamp this week.

Luxol were drawn in the preliminary round Group B and matches will be played at the Andorra Sports Complex between August 26 and 29.

In a statement, the club said the players, led by new player-coach Frane Despotovic and his assistants Celino Alves and Florin Anton, will be flying to Andorra tonight with high hopes of some positive results after five weeks of hard training in the summer pre-season.

“We know that we are facing a difficult task in this preliminary round group. Pescara are seasoned campaigners in this competition,” club chairman Joe Aquilina remarked.

“We are also aware of the strength of the other two teams but we want to do well and try to take our chances.”

Luxol start their group matches against Pescara on Wednesday and play FC Encamp 24 hours later. The final match, against Gentofte, will be played next Saturday.

This summer Luxol were strengthened with the acquisition of a few high-profile players, some formerly of Balzan, including Despotovic.

Foreign players Zvezdan Vukovic and Vanderlei Augusto will also join Luxol for the new season.

Holders Kairat Almaty, of Kazakhstan, are among 49 clubs in the running for the 2015/16 UEFA Futsal Cup with the draws for the preliminary and main rounds held in Nyon, last month.

Last April, Kairat regained the title they previously won in 2013 after beating holders Barcelona 3-2 in the final played in Lisbon, Portugal.

As one of the top four seeds, Kairat Almaty get a bye to November’s elite round along with compatriots Tulpar Karagandy, sole three-time winners Inter FS (Spain) and KMF Ekonomac Kragujevac (Serbia).

In total, 29 teams (ranked 21-49) will start the competition in the preliminary round, with 16 more (ranked 5-20) entering at the main round stage between September 29 and October 5.

The Luxol squad
Reuben Grech, Adrian Attard, Frane Despotovic, Florin Anton, Celino Alves, William Barbosa (captain), Carlo Scicluna, Zvezdan Vukovic, Vanderlei Augusto, Mark Zammit, Karl Saliba, Carl Azzopardi, Matthew Attard, Glenn Bonello.

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