Barely four weeks after the end of the 2015 Aquatic Sports Association national competitions, Malta will be engaged in Group G of the Euro 2016 qualification tournament at the National Pool Complex, Tal-Qroqq, between Friday and Sunday.

Besides Malta, the teams in the group will be Germany, Poland and Switzerland, with the top two teams proceeding to the finals of the 2016 European Championships which be held in Belgrade, Serbia, in January next year.

The brief parenthesis, albeit with a squad shorn of some of its best elements when the Maltese took part as Valletta in the LEN Euro Champions League recently, will have served national team coach Karl Izzo well to assess his players and provide him with tactical options ahead of the forthcoming test.

The 21-man squad has been trimmed down to 17 players, with the final 13 to be announced on Friday morning.

The group includes Steve Camilleri, now a CC Ortigia player in the Italian top division and who is currently with the Sicilian team in Malta as part of their build-up for the Italian top league.

Edward Aquilina, now with Sliema, and Clint Mercieca, who recently joined San Ġiljan from Neptunes, are also in the squad.

“I hope we can again raise our game and do well in this Euro qualifying phase after due preparation in the past months,” head coach Karl Izzo told reporters during a news conference at the National Pool in Tal-Qroqq.

“This is a very important tournament for Malta. We are in with a chance to qualify for the Euro finals in Belgrade. We require two wins from three games.

“Germany are by far the strongest. They are in full preparation for Rio 2016. No, doubt, the Germans are firm favourites to win the group.

“As for Switzerland we have recently beaten them, but from the list we received they have some new faces, probably naturalised players. We must be very cautious and be at our best to have the better of them.

“Same goes for Poland who have also some naturalised components in their team.

“Since our last matches against them four years ago, when we drew away and won at home, they have beaten the strong Ukraine team and Israel in the first qualifying round.

“Our match against them could well be the decider for the second berth in the group.”

Izzo said that he was pleased with the commitment of his players who, he says, are keen to write a new chapter in the history of Maltese waterpolo.

“We have been training intensively since the end of the league,” the Malta coach said.

“I have been counting on the core players and their eagerness to make history and qualify for the first time for the Euro finals.

“We are expecting strong backing from all Maltese waterpolo followers to help us achieve qualification,” Izzo added when referring to the crowd support at the National Pool.

Tentative schedule

ASA president Joe Caruana Curran echoed Izzo’s thoughts.

“We look forward to our senior team emulating the Under-17s when they qualified for the European Games in Baku earlier this summer,” Caruana Curran said.

“We already have a tentative programme of preparation for the finals in Belgrade in case we qualify from this group.

“As for this second qualification stage we are currently having some useful workouts with Switzerland who have been here for some days as well as Ortigia.”

Making it to the finals in Belgrade, between January 10 and 23, with two teams qualifying from each of the four groups to join the elite eight who had already obtained a berth during the Euro Championships in Budapest, will be a historical achievement.

“After a very successful domestic season, during which the turnout at the National Pool was very good, it is the turn of the senior team to draw the crowds and consequently the support that Malta needs,” the ASA president concluded.

The squad
Alan Borg Cole, Niki Lanzon, Edward Aquilina, Michele Stellini, Mark Meli, Matthew Zammit, Steve Camilleri, Jordan Camilleri, Ryan Mock, Aurelien Cousin, Clint Mercieca, Ben Plumpton, Nicholas Grixti, Nicholas Bugelli, Luke Caruana, Dino Zammit.

Programme
Friday: 18.00 Germany vs Poland; 19.15 Switzerland vs Malta.
Saturday: 18.00 Germany vs Switzerland; 19.15 Poland vs Malta.
Sunday: 09.00 Poland vs Switzerland; 10.15 Germany vs Malta.