Malta football coach Pietro Ghedin is rallying his players for a gruelling encounter with a buoyant Norway side who are chasing qualification for the Euro 2016 finals.

"Norway is going to play for the European Championship," Ghedin told a pre-match news conference at the Ullevaal Stadium, the venue of tomorrow's qualifier (kick-off 6pm).

"They have a big chance to qualify. It's going to be a very tough game for us. All matches are difficult for us but this is even harder.

"I've been told that the stadium will be full... it's going a big test for us."

Norway have high hopes of ending their long wait to qualify for a major football tournament as they lie second in Group H with 16 points, two behind leaders Italy and two ahead of Croatia, Malta's opponents in the final qualifier next Tuesday. The top two teams in the group qualify automatically for the expanded 24-team European Championship finals in France.

A year ago, Malta succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to Norway, conceding three goals on the counter-attack. The Norwegians have gone from strength to strength since that win, meaning that Malta face a massive task to stop them tomorrow evening but Ghedin will surely instruct his team to play a more cautious game than they did at the National Stadium.

"Norway have changed their style of play since their win in Malta," Ghedin said.

"We played badly that day. We made three mistakes and they scored three goals.

"Norway deserved to win but the result was harsh on us."

For tomorrow's game, Ghedin has no selection issues as all the 23 players in the Malta squad trained normally today.

The Italian is not expected to make drastic changes from the team that started the 2-2 draw against Azerbaijan last month but he is expected to switch to a five-man defence.

Tomorrow's qualifier inevitably evokes unpleasant memories for Malta as the infamous Norway-Malta qualifier for Euro 2008 was also played at the Ullevaal Stadium.

That game, in 2007, cast a long shadow over Maltese football as, a few years later, reports emerged that the result was fixed by a notorious betting ring who allegedly bribed some Malta players.

These claims led to former Malta midfielder Kevin Sammut receiving a 10-year ban from football for his alleged involvement in this match-fixing case.

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