The D. Afonso Henriques Stadium in Guimarães, northwest of Portugal, will be a cauldron of noise and colour tonight.
Having resuscitated their fading World Cup hopes courtesy of a 3-0 victory over Hungary and Sweden's slip-up to Denmark, Portugal are everyone's favourites to cement second place in Group One to earn another crack at qualification to next year's finals in South Africa.
On the other side of the fence, Malta will be on a damage limitation mission in the hope of ending an otherwise disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign on a dignified note.
Malta, with only one point from nine qualifiers, are wary of the prospect of taking on a fired-up Portugal but the players in John Buttigieg's squad can do a lot worse than heed the advice of Gilbert Agius, the respected team captain.
"My philosophy is that you should look at the last group match and try to improve on it," Agius told The Times.
"Our last game was the home qualifier against Sweden which we only lost 1-0. We should strive to build on our performance against the Swedes when we play Portugal."
Agius is bracing himself for a flat-out assault from Portugal.
"Portugal will go all out to make sure of victory as early as possible," Agius said.
"They stormed into Hungary last Saturday and went 1-0 up inside the opening minute. A full house will spur Portugal to attack us from the outset in search of an early goal."
Agius, the most capped player in the squad with 118 appearances, has been involved in many high-pressure internationals. The Valletta talisman stressed the importance of concentration and tactical cohesion.
"In matches like this, we have nothing to lose," Agius claimed.
"It's imperative that we are fully concentrated, especially in the opening minutes, keep our tactical shape and show resilience. If we succeed in preventing Portugal from scoring an early goal, they may start to rush things and our confidence would grow the longer the game goes."
Sporting white shirts with the logo of Banif Bank, who are sponsoring the national team for today's qualifier, Malta had a training drill at the D. Afonso Henriques Stadium yesterday evening.
Coach Buttigieg is unlikely to make sweeping changes from the team that started last month's 1-0 defeat to Sweden.
Brian Said is expected to receive the all-clear to play as the veteran defender has almost fully recuperated from the back injury he suffered in the initial stages of the 2-1 defeat to Angola in a friendly on Saturday.
Kenneth Scicluna appears to have the edge over Jonathan Caruana for the other centre-half role, Manny Muscat is a certainty to start at right-back and Ian Azzopardi at left-back. Jamie Pace and Agius are in line to resume their partnership in central midfield but John Hutchinson is also pushing hard for a first-team slot.
Shaun Bajada (left) and Roderick Briffa (right) are the two leading contenders for the wide midfield roles with Andrew Cohen poised to be deployed behind lone striker Michael Mifsud.
Malta are under no illusion about the size of the task to try and nullify the attacking threat posed by the likes of Simao, Nani and Deco but, on the plus side, they will not have to worry about countering arguably the best player in the world... Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Real Madrid star pulled out of the Portugal squad after aggravating an ankle injury in the early stages of Saturday's win over Hungary.
Agius acknowledged that Ronaldo's absence is a slight boost for Malta but pointed out that Portugal are not a one-man band.
"They will surely fill the void left by Ronaldo but without him, Portugal will lose that extra touch of flair," Agius said.
"Ronaldo was also absent when we played in Malta but they were still superior and beat us 4-0.
"I think that most of the players, not just us, would relish the chance to be on the same pitch with a player of Ronaldo's calibre.
"But, on the other hand, his absence removes a massive threat for us because everyone knows that Ronaldo is a great ball player and can be lethal in deadball situations."
Tonight's match marks the end of another qualifying campaign for Malta.
At 35, Agius is justifiably delighted that he has retained his status as key component of the national team. And, judging by his fine performances in the last few months, this qualifier is unlikely to be his last in a Malta shirt.
"As long as I'm physically fit and the coaches deem that I can still contribute to the national team, I will continue," Agius said.
"My aim is to prolong my international career but that doesn't depend solely on me. We have a new national coach and maybe he has different ideas.
"I think that my performances in the last few matches have been satisfactory but it's up to the coach to judge and choose the players. I will always respect his decisions."
Agius is only five games away from surpassing David Carabott's record of 122 caps for Malta.
The Malta captain makes no bones about his ambition to emulate that feat.
"It (Carabott's record) is a target," Agius admitted.
"My goal is to equal and possibly surpass that number of caps for the national team."
Past clashes
World Cup
10-02-85 Malta-Portugal 1-3
12-10-85 Portugal-Malta 3-2
24-01-93 Malta-Portugal 0-1
19-06-93 Portugal-Malta 4-0
06-09-08 Malta-Portugal 0-4
Euro Championship
29-03-87 Portugal-Malta 2-2
20-12-87 Malta-Portugal 0-1
09-02-91 Malta-Portugal 0-1
20-02-91 Portugal-Malta 5-0
Formations (probable)
Malta: A. Hogg, M. Muscat, I. Azzopardi, B. Said, R. Briffa, G. Agius/J. Hutchinson, M. Mifsud, A. Cohen, S. Bajada, K. Scicluna/J. Caruana, J. Pace.
Portugal: Eduardo, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Bruno Alves, Duda, Pedro Mendes, Deco, Raul Meireles, Simao, Liedson, Nani.
Referee: Alan Kelly (Ireland).
Kick-off: 8.45 p.m.