The daunting prospect of taking on Sweden, Turkey, Greece and Poland in Group Seven of the 2013-15 UEFA European U-21 Championship qualifying round has prompted Malta U-21 coach Ray Farrugia to appeal for more backing from local clubs to help his team prepare better for their competitive assignments.
“I’m disappointed as our group is very difficult,” Farrugia, who attended yesterday’s draw at UEFA’s Nyon headquarters together with Malta FA vice-president Alex Manfrè and Rodney Pisani, the Malta U-21 team manager, told The Times.
“It’s probably the toughest group as Sweden, Turkey, Greece and Poland are all strong footballing nations.
“That said, we must continue to think positive.
“The one thing I would like to ask for at this stage is for our clubs to further support our efforts by allowing the U-21 players to train with us on certain days, especially in the weeks leading up to the qualifiers as that would significantly boost our preparations.”
Malta U-21s face a tall order to emulate the five-point tally they gained in the last qualifiers but Farrugia is confident that his team can give a good account of itself.
“There are no weaks teams in our group but that should be a source of greater motivation because the challenge is bigger,” Farrugia, who recently signed a contract extension to stay as Malta U-21 coach for another two years, said.
“Any point we can get from this group would be a bonus for us.
“If we prepare well, we can compete with honour but we need the clubs to co-operate and help us in the build-up.
“We have an away double-header against Turkey and Greece in September and we can’t hope to do well in such games if the build-up is not right.”
The coaches and represen-tatives of the teams in Group Seven took only a couple of hours to agree on the match schedule in what Farrugia described as a “cordial discussion”.
Malta kick off their commitments with a trip to Poland on June 7. After another two away games, against Turkey and Greece in September, the Maltese youngsters will make their first home appearance on October 15 when they host Greece.
The final qualifier is a home clash with Turkey on September 5, 2014.
Top seeds Sweden were also in the same group as Malta in the last U-21 qualifying competition.
Sweden, who completed a double over Malta (1-0 and 4-0), topped Group Two with 22 points but have failed to reach the 2013 finals, to be held in Israel, after losing to Italy 4-2 on aggregate in the play-offs.
The 10 group winners and the four best runners-up will advance to the play-offs to determine the seven teams who will contest the 2015 final tournament, to be staged in the Czech Republic.
Match schedule
June 7, 2013: Poland vs Malta
Sep. 5, 2013: Turkey vs Malta
Sep. 10, 2013: Greece vs Malta
Oct. 15, 2013: Malta vs Geece
Nov. 15, 2013: Malta vs Poland
Nov. 19, 2013: Sweden vs Malta
March 5, 2014: Malta vs Sweden
Sep. 5, 2014: Malta vs Turkey
The groups
Group one: England, Wales, Finland, Moldova, Lithuania, San Marino.
Group two: Russia, Denmark, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Andorra, Estonia.
Group three: Netherlands, Scotland, Slovakia, Georgia, Luxembourg.
Group four: Spain, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia, Albania.
Group five: Switzerland, Ukraine, Croatia, Latvia, Liechtenstein.
Group six: Germany, Romania, Montenegro, Ireland, Faroe Islands.
Group seven: Sweden, Turkey, Greece, Poland, Malta.
Group eight: Israel, Portugal, Norway, Macedonia, Azerbaijan.
Group nine: Italy, Serbia, Belgium, Cyprus, Northern Ireland.
Group ten: France, Belarus, Armenia, Iceland, Kazakhstan.