Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has praised Malta for being a well organised team in defence, after his team laboured to a 2-0 win at Ta' Qali.
"We have to appreciate the fact that when we come up against a well-organised team we have to be quicker with our play," Prandelli told a press conference after the World Cup qualifier..
“We had to up the tempo but failed to do so and we had to suffer until the end of the match. When we based our game on quick exchanges we created some goalscoring opportunities but then we relied on possession. We were finding it hard to create spaces inside the Malta defence... perhaps we were somewhat slow in our build- up play.”
"But the great performance against Brazil and the three points tonight are paramount."
GHEDIN PLEASED
Malta coach Pietro Ghedin was pleased with his team's much-improved showing after the dismal outing against Bulgaria.
"I am very pleased with the performance, especially after last week's disappointment against Bulgaria, but I'm upset that we missed some good chances," Ghedin said.
"It would have been better if Mifsud had converted the penalty but he is a very hard-working player, who has 36 goals for Malta and is part of the country's football history."
Malta defender Luke Dimech said this was an encouraging performance by Malta.
"We had to lift our game to show that the match in Bulgaria was just a one- off and that the national team can do better than that. I admit my mistake in the penalty incident but the team reacted strongly after that early upset.
“The Italy team is full of star players but I think we should not be ashamed of our performance. In fact, this was the perfect response to those critics who came down so heavily on us after the match in Sofia last week.”
Italy midfielder Riccardo Montolivo said this was not one of Italy's best matches but one could not take the credit from the Maltese team which was quick to profit from Italy's slow play in midfield to launch quick breaks and attack goal.
"They had chances to score but luckily for us Buffon saved the penalty.
“Had Malta scored, it would have meant extra pressure on us to win this game. At times, we found it so difficult to penetrate. Surely, this wasn’t an easy match for us.”