First competitive outing in 2009, first point for Malta.

Four defeats in as many World Cup qualifiers had cranked up the pressure on our national team to break their duck when hosting Albania on Wednesday.

Furthermore, news of Malta's six-point slide in the latest FIFA rankings, published on Wednesday morning, provided a stark but timely reminder of the team's falling standards in recent months, in the process accentuating the need to get their act together against an Albanian team that had gleaned five points from their opening four qualifiers.

Nowadays, there is no such thing as an easy match, especially in international football, as most of the coaches in charge of the European heavyweights habitually stress before every assignment in which their teams are heavily tipped to win easily.

For Malta, every international outing is an uphill struggle but on Wednesday, the team managed to restore some lost pride with a creditable goalless draw in a match marked by a paucity of scoring chances.

The stalemate left the coaches of the two teams, Dusan Fitzel and Arie Haan, with mixed feelings but both agreed the result was equitable.

"We could have won today but overall, it was an equal game," Fitzel told reporters after the match. "I must admit that in the last three to four minutes, I was afraid about conceding a late goal because luck was not with us in all the other qualifiers we had played."

Wednesday's game was a tale of two halves. Albania had a clear edge over Malta in the opening 45 minutes but in the second half, Fitzel's men stepped up their game with the likes of Andrew Cohen and Andrè Schembri posing endless problems to their opponents.

Schembri orchestrated Malta's best scoring chance when, with two minutes of the second half gone, he unpicked the Albanian defence with a through-ball to Terrence Scerri but the towering Malta striker blasted his shot over the bar.

Malta's marked improvement in the second half suggested that Fitzel's half-time talk had worked wonders on his players but the Czech said: "I wouldn't say there was a massive difference between our first-half display and that in the second half. We adopted a new tactical approach for this game and the players took some time to adapt to it.

"Although in training I encourage the players to keep possession and try to score goals, doing that in a competitive match is a different matter.

"Our players lack confidence and that's why we struggled a bit in the first half. Things improved in the second period because we tried to play more penetrative passes.

"I substituted Terrence Scerri in the second half because he was tired. Schembri then took up the striker's position and he had a great game. I told Scerri at half-time that I expected him to burn the grass in the first 15 minutes of the second half but he wasn't so sharp."

Cohen's sublime performance on Wednesday provided further evidence that the skilful Hibs playmaker is regaining the standards that earned him back-to-back MFA Player of the Year awards.

Fitzel was pleased with Cohen's contribution. "When I became national coach, Cohen was considered to be the leading player in Maltese football. He was named best player for two seasons in a row but he rarely showed his true potential when playing for the national team. Today (Wednesday), he was one of our best players. Cohen showed great composure on the ball, made some good dribbles and delivered some excellent passes."

Home disappointment about Malta's failure to open their scoring account for the fifth qualifier in succession was softened by the team's success in keeping a rare clean sheet.

The defensive pairing of Luke Dimech and Andrei Agius, who were playing their first competitive game together, was solid and definitely bodes well for the future.

"Andrei Agius and Luke Dimech did very well for us in defence," Fitzel remarked. "They managed to limit the space for the opponents and their positioning was very good."

The Czech explained that he withdrew Alex Muscat in the second half because the Sliema right-back had a minor injury.

Assessing Muscat's performance, Fitzel said: "Alex was a bit shaky in the first half but that was to be expected because this was his first competitive match for the national team. He improved a lot in the second half."

Haan, the Albania coach, described his team's second-half performance as the worst since he took charge of the team.

"I really didn't expect the team to play so badly in the second half," Haan lamented. "I can think of several reasons behind the team's slump. Some players have not had a competitive game for weeks and their match fitness is very low at present.

"The performance in the second half was the worst I've seen since I became coach of Albania."

Asked if he was still upbeat about Albania's chances of causing a surprise by clinching a place in the 2010 World Cup finals, Haan said: "Sweden and Portugal are very good, top-class. It's really hard for teams like Albania and Malta to compete against these teams."

The obtainment of a first point after four losses may have come as a relief for Malta but it's imperative that Fitzel and his charges keep their feet grounded and strive towards long-term improvement.

A solid second-half performance sufficed to secure a point against a below-par Albania but our players would have to do much more to boost their chances of adding to their tally in their remaining qualifiers against the likes of Denmark, Hungary, Sweden and Portugal.