The 3-1 defeat to Croatia on Friday extended Malta’s losing streak to seven matches but the national team players had little time to dwell on that upset as their attention immediately turned to today’s qualifier against Georgia at the National Stadium.

Time is running out for Malta to open their account in Group F and, with only three qualifiers remaining, two at home and one away to Latvia, the general view is that today’s meeting with Georgia represents the best chance for our team to break their duck.

“This is our second game in four days,” Malta coach John Buttigieg told reporters yesterday. “After the Croatia match, all our players are in a good condition as we had no injuries.

“It’s difficult to prepare for an international game in such a short period of time but the players are looking very motivated and they will surely do their best to get a positive result.

“It’s not going to be easy because Georgia have a good team and every international game is tough.”

Having expressed disappointment at Malta’s disjointed performance in the opening 25 minutes of the Croatia qualifier, Buttigieg is hopeful that his players do not repeat what he termed as silly mistakes when they take on Georgia.

“We have watched parts of the game and the players could see for themselves that they committed mistakes which were banal,” Buttigieg said. “They know that they can’t repeat those errors in international matches.

“There were a lot of mistakes, the passing, the marking etc. We must improve on these things and I’m confident that the players will do that.”

The pattern of Malta’s performances in double-headers suggests that the team tend to play better in the second game but Buttigieg is not reading much into past matches.

“It could be that the players adapt to the higher tempo and perform better in the second game but the problem with double-fixtures is that, physically, it’s hard to play two games in four days,” the Malta coach said.

Buttigieg was very careful not to talk up his side’s chances of recording their first positive result against Georgia.

“On paper, we have a chance against Georgia but you never know,” he said. “We also have a chance when we play Israel at home and there’s also Latvia away. There were occasions when we produced our best performances against better teams. We were very close to getting a point against Greece.”

The likely return of defender Jonathan Caruana is a boost for Malta as the lanky centre-half was sorely missed against Croatia. Caruana sat out the game after contracting a bout of flu but he’s on the mend.

“Jonathan Caruana is better,” Buttigieg said. “We hope he will continue to improve and be fit to play against Georgia.”

Daniel Bogdanovic has also been reinstated in the squad. The 31-year-old forward was overlooked for the Croatia game after making a brief visit to the UK to complete his move to Blackpool from Sheffield United but Buttigieg has recalled him for today’s qualifier.

Asked about Bogdanovic’s chances of making the starting line-up, Buttigieg replied: “Daniel Bogdanovic is training with us. We will evaluate his condition and commitment during training as we do with all the other players. We always try to select those players we believe will give us the best chance of getting a good result.”

Malta’s starting formation is not expected to differ much from Friday’s game but, provided he is fit, Caruana will resume his partnership with Andrei Agius in the centre of defence.

As always, Buttigieg offered no clue about his team selection but he may tweak his formation to accomodate Bogdanovic while Gareth Sciberras, who filled in for Caruana at centre-half against Croatia, could move back to a central midfield role alongside John Hutchinson.

It remains to be seen whether Manny Muscat will keep his place in the team as the return of Bogdanovic could tempt Buttigieg to revert Roderick Briffa to right-back and deploy the new Blackpool signing on the right of midfield.

Buttigieg expects more from Maltese-Australian players Hutchinson, who is currently on loan with Chinese club Chengdu Blades, and Muscat but said the two have integrated well with their team-mates.

“With regards to the Australian players, their situation is difficult because they are playing in countries very far from Malta,” Buttigieg said. “Nevertheless, they have integrated well in the squad and both have a good character. Performance-wise, they can improve and at the moment, I think Hutchinson is playing better than Muscat.”

As the pressure grows on Malta to get their first point on board, some will expect Buttigieg to adopt a more adventurous gameplan for today’s qualifier but the Malta coach insisted that his team is replete with attacking players.

“Like the majority of the other teams in world football, we try to defend and attack in numbers,” Buttigieg said.

“We have many attack-minded players in our side and that’s one of the reasons we have difficulties in set-pieces... these players are not used to defend in set-play situations.

“We don’t have a tall striker who is strong in the air. The best option, and many teams play this way, is to have two attackers with one dropping deep.”

While Malta will be going all out to pick their first point in Group F, Georgia will be looking to atone for their unexpected 1-0 home defeat to Latvia on Friday.

Georgia, who are under the charge of Temuri Ketsbaia, have nine points from eight qualifiers.

Previous encounters

Friendlies
10-02-1994: Malta vs Georgia - 0-1
19-07-1994: Georgia vs Malta - 1-1
10-02-1998: Malta vs Georgia - 1-3
01-03-2006: Malta vs Georgia - 0-2
12-08-2009: Malta vs Georgia - 2-0

Euro Championship
08-10-2010: Georgia vs Malta - 1-0

Malta (probable)
A. Hogg, J. Caruana, M. Muscat/R, Briffa, G. Sciberras, A. Agius, J. Hutchinson, M. Mifsud, A. Cohen, C. Failla, D. Bogdanovic/R. Fenech, A. Schembri.

Referee: Pol van Boekel (Netherlands).

Kick-off: 8.30 p.m., National Stadium.