Malta's national football squad are gearing up for the friendly match against Germany tomorrow at the Tivoli Stadium in Aachen.
Tomorrow's friendly (kick-off 6 p.m.) is the first of three warm-up games for Germany ahead of their participation in the World Cup finals in South Africa.
After playing Malta, Germany take on Hungary in Budapest on May 29 and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Frankfurt on June 3. The Malta FA contingent is staying in a hotel in the Dutch town of Vaals as Aachen is very close to the borders with the Netherlands and Belgium.
John Buttigieg, the Malta coach, has selected an 18-man squad for this high-profile friendly. No injuries were reported after a light training session in rainy Vaals yesterday. This evening, Malta will train at the Tivoli Stadium, the venue of tomorrow's match.
In the absence of captain Gilbert Agius and vice-captain Brian Said, who have been left out of the squad, Valletta striker Michael Mifsud will captain the Maltese team tomorrow.
"I believe that the experience of being involved in a friendly like this will benefit the players and all of us in the national team's set-up," Buttigieg told timesofmalta.com
"The weather conditions are different to what we are used to in Malta. Playing in front of a big crowd is also part of the learning curve for our players because they will surely face similar scenarios in some of our Euro 2012 qualifiers."
Germany have their sights set on a morale-boosting victory against Malta as they look to step up their preparations for the World Cup. Austalia, Ghana and Serbia are Germany's opponents in Group D.
Coach Joachim Loew named his provisional 30-man squad last week but most of his leading men are out of equation for tomorrow's friendly as the Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen players plus captain Michael Ballack, the Chelsea midfielder, have stayed with their clubs ahead of important matches over the next eight days.
Six years ago, Malta were on the receiving end of a 7-0 defeat to Germany in a friendly match ahead of the Euro 2004 finals.