For many years it was Michael Mifsud, now it’s Alfred Effiong.

Italy coach Antonio Conte has anointed the striker as Malta’s danger man ahead of today’s Euro 2016 Group H qualifier in Florence.

“Malta will defend with eight players, they will put men behind the ball,” Conte told a news conference last night.

“We have to be clever and attack Malta in the right manner, using strikers who are best suited for this kind of game.

“We need to pay attention to this lad from Nigeria, Effiong. He’s a good player, very fast... and we must not forget Mifsud.”

With Italy under fire for their scoring woes and still chasing their first win in 2015, the hosts are ex-pected to press forward from the off tonight in search of goals.

When it was put to Conte that Italy found the going tough in the away qualifier against Malta, winning only 1-0, the former Juventus mentor replied: “We struggled in terms of the result but we hit the post five times.

“The outcome was not very good but it seems Italy always find it hard to score plenty of goals against Malta.

“We want to play well but most of the time, it takes two teams to produce an entertaining match be-cause it’s not easy against opponents who set out to defend.

“There will be no goal feast though. Malta have improved a lot tactically under coach Pietro Ghedin. They keep their shape, even when they concede.

“We have maximum respect for Malta but for us, the most important thing is that we implement the tactics we have worked on in the last few days.”

Although Conte is not excited by the prospect of facing a defence-minded team, he has no qualms about Malta’s choices.

“It’s right for Malta to adopt this kind of approach when, on paper, they play against stronger nations,” Conte said.

“They try to close ranks and operate with counter-attacks but when Malta face teams of the same level, they approach it with a positive attitude.

“I know this because I have watched their games.”

Meanwhile, the Italian media are quite sure that, for the first time, Conte will play Andrea Pirlo, who this summer left Juventus for New York City, and Paris SG’s Marco Verratti together in central midfield.

Pellè-Eder tandem

Up front, Southampton’s Graziano Pellè, who netted Italy’s winner in Malta in October, and Sampdoria’s Eder are expected to start alongside either Lazio’s Antonio Candreva or Francesco Vasquez, of Palermo.

Gianluigi Buffon, the Italy and Juventus goalkeeper, called on the fans to show more interest in the national team amid reports of slow ticket sales for tonight’s game.

“To conclude ambitious projects, you need the leading actors, namely the coach and us, but we also need the enthusiasm and passion of our public, our population, because we represent them,” Buffon told reporters.

According to the FIGC, just over 9,500 tickets had been sold so far.

Before yesterday’s news conference, the FIGC and Puma launched the new away Italy kit.

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