Malta national coach Pietro Ghedin has set his sights on picking some points from tomorrow's Euro 2016 Group H match against Azerbaijan at the National Stadium (kick-off: 6pm).
In midweek, the national team were at the wrong end of a 1-0 defeat to Italy in Florence but the gutsy performance from the Maltese players against the Azzurri drew a lot of praise and Ghedin said it’s about time the team finally starts to reap points from their performances.
“We are coming from a very encouraging performance against Italy,” Ghedin told reporters yesterday.
“But despite our efforts we returned home with no points in the bag and I hope things will finally change against Azerbaijan. We are determined to bring to an end our recent run of defeats and I hope to deliver a strong performance tomorrow.
“Azerbaijan will be no easy opponents. They have grown a lot as a team in the past year. They have changed their coach and the players seemed to have gelled well with his playing philosophy and that is mirrored in their recent results which saw them earn prestigious draws against Norway and Croatia besides beating us in Baku last year.
“Our plan is very clear. We will try to play a more offensive game and I’m confident that we have enough quality in our team to cause them a lot of problems and hopefully it will be enough for us to gain the three points.”
On his part, striker Andre Schembri was equally positive about Malta’s chances of gaining a positive result against Azerbaijan.
“This is a very important match for us as I believe we have a good chance of gaining more points,” the Omonia Nicosia striker said.
“We are coming from a very positive performance in Italy which has filled us with renewed determination to try and win some points against Azerbaijan.
“The Azeris are no new opponents for us as we have already played against them in Baku in a match which I felt we were unlucky to lose. I firmly believe that with the players we have we can beat Azerbaijan.”
Midfielder Roderick Briffa was equally positive about Malta’s chances against Azerbaijan tomorrow.
“We are heading into the match in high spirits after our excellent performance against Italy where I felt we were unlucky to lose the match,” the Valletta midfielder said.
“At this level all teams are difficult but we are approaching the match in a positive frame of mind. In the first match in Baku we deserved to take at least take a point but this time we will be playing in front of our fans and we will do everything we can to try and provide them with good reason to celebrate."