National coach Pietro Ghedin will be hoping that his players recover sufficiently from the jet lag caused by an extended journey when Malta take on Estonia in a friendly match at the Parnu Kalevi Stadium today.

The squad touched down in Tallinn yesterday afternoon after spending the night in Amsterdam following the cancellation of their flight to Estonia on Monday.

The extra complications in-evitably left a disruptive effect on the squad’s preparations as the players were unable to practise on Monday evening.

Malta midfielder Gareth Sciberras admitted that the unscheduled stopover in the Dutch capital had a negative impact but the mood remains upbeat.

“It was beyond our control,” Sciberras told Times of Malta.

“This is not the best way to prepare for an international game but these things happen.

“Now we are just looking forward to having a good training session in Parnu and, hopefully, we won’t encounter the same hiccups on our way back home.”

Sciberras praised the Malta FA for the way they handled the situation after the Nordica flight to Tallinn was cancelled due to a technical fault.

“The MFA did their best to remedy the situation,” the Birkirkara captain said.

“In the circumstances, I believe they made the best decision. The atmosphere among the players is very good because there’s unity in the squad.”

This evening’s game is intended to pep up preparations for the 2018 World Cup Group F qualifier at home to Scotland on Sunday.

It’s an opportunity for the players to enhance their match fitness at this early stage of the season but Sciberras believes that the Maltese teams’ involvement in this season’s UEFA club competitions means that several members of Ghedin’s squad are not lacking sharpness.

Birkirkara played a record six games in the Europa League after reaching the third qualifying round, Valletta figured in four Champions League matches while Balzan and Hibs had two games after going out in the first qualifying round of the Europa League.

“A good number of players in the national squad have played in Europe this summer and that will surely help us,” Sciberras said.

“Of course, this friendly is a useful test as the level of international football remains very high.

“The coach also has a chance to put his tactical plans into practice and for us to pursue a positive, morale-boosting performance ahead of the opening World Cup qualifier against Scotland.”

Judging by his comments last weekend, Ghedin is expected to keep faith with the same 5-3-2 module he favoured in the last Euro 2016 qualifying campaign that ended with Malta collecting two points from 10 games.

Ghedin lamented that he doesn’t have enough time to try out different tactics in training but, with Malta having used a 4-2-3-1 approach in the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign and with most of the country’s leading clubs now playing with four at the back, the Italian will probably feel comfortable about shifting to a four-man defence in certain games.

For today’s game against Estonia – ranked 117th by FIFA while Malta trail in 176th – Ghedin is expected to rely on his tried-and-tested personnel with his line-up unlikely to differ much from the one he fielded for the 2-1 friendly defeat to Austria in May.

In Amsterdam, the Malta players had time to see highlights of recent Estonia games after Ghedin had analysed the opposition together his technical staff, namely assistant Ray Farrugia, goalkeeping coach Charles Sciberras and the squad’s physical trainer Luca Pagani.

Estonia are in Group H of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign along with Belgium, Bosnia, Greece, Cyprus and Gibraltar. Their opening qualifier is away to Bosnia next Tuesday.

In the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, Estonia finished fourth in Group E, level on 10 points with Lithuania who are in Malta’s World Cup pool along with England, Slovakia, Slovenia and Scotland.

Today's friendlies
Estonia vs Malta - 17.30
Czech Rep. vs Armenia - 19.15
Norway vs Belarus - 19.30
Denmark vs Liechtenstein - 20.00
Turkey vs Russia - 20.15
Albania vs Morocco - 20.30
Germany vs Finland - 20.45
Ireland vs Oman - 20.45

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