Malta U-21 coach Ray Farrugia was livid yesterday after describing the pitch allocated to his squad for their morning training drill in Istanbul as “terrible”.
Fearful that the uneven surface might cause injuries to his players ahead of this evening’s Euro U-21 Group Seven qualifier against Turkey at the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium (kick-off 6pm), Farrugia refused to train on the pitch.
Instead, the Malta U-21 squad had a light work-out in a park near their Istanbul hotel before training at the venue of today’s qualifier in the evening.
“I’m very disappointed,” Farrugia told Times of Malta from Istanbul.
“The state of the pitch was very bad.
“We couldn’t train as we had planned. It took us 30 minutes to drive to this place only to find that the pitch was in a terrible state and unfit for training.”
Yesterday’s mishap aside, Farrugia is quite satisfied with his team’s build-up for this evening’s match, the Malta U-21s’ second in this qualifying trek after their opening 2-0 defeat away to Poland in June.
“We trained regularly before our journey to Turkey,” Farrugia said.
“We have lost Daniel Zerafa to injury but in his absence, another player will get the chance to show that he is worthy of a place in the team.
“The next two games are very difficult as we’re playing Turkey and Greece away but I hope our players will rise to the occasion.
“I’m convinced that our players can do better than they’ve done so far as they’ve got potential.”
Turkey lost 3-1 away to Poland in their opening qualifier but that defeat has done nothing to diminish Farrugia’s respect for his side’s impending opponents.
“Turkey are one of the main contenders for qualification from this group even if they started their campaign with a 3-1 loss to Poland,” Farrugia said.
“Their performance in that game was very good.”
Farrugia is unfazed by the prospect of playing two international matches in the space of five days but admitted to harbouring concerns about the four players who are a booking away from suspension for the Greek encounter.
“Double-headers are demanding but by now we should have got used to them,” Farrugia said.
“I’m concerned about the four players who have one yellow card as another booking would rule them out of our next match.
“If we lose more players, our task would become more difficult but our focus is on the Turkey game. The next match is always the most important one and we will only start to think about Greece after we play this one against Turkey.”
Although Farrugia is an attack-minded coach, he believes that Maltese teams can’t afford to throw caution to the wind when playing away from home.
“We have to be compact,” Farrugia said.
“Tactical discipline is the key. If we keep our shape and play to the maximum of our abilities, I believe we can aspire to get a positive result.
“But, we can’t be too adventurous in away games, especially against strong teams like Turkey.”
With Zerafa out of the equation, Farrugia must make one change from the team that started the 1-0 defeat to Hungary in a friendly last month. Birkirkara’s Ryan Scicluna, back in the fray after recovering from injury, will replace Zerafa.
Malta U-21 formation: Juergen Borg, Christian Grech, Zach Muscat, Louis Cutajar, Sacha Borg, Steve Pisani, Clyde Borg, Bjorn Kristensen, Ryan Camenzuli, Ryan Scicluna, Jean Paul Farrugia.
Referee: Sergei Tsinkevich (Belarus FA).