The Maltese national team is preparing to face Lithuania in their final 2018 World Cup qualifier at home, a match in which they are targeting to take their first point, if not points at all. 

In what will be Pietro Ghedin's farewell match at the National Stadium, the players are confident that if they impose their gameplay and remain focused throughout the 90 mintues in order avoid a similar collapse to that of the England game, they can erase the zero from their points tally. 

Lithuania claimed the first round encounter by two goals to nil with Ghedin's side collapsing after defender Jonathan Caruana was given the marching orders, paving the way for the eventual Lithuanian victory. 

One of the Maltese members who represented Malta in Vilnius was defender Joseph Zerafa, who while speaking highly of Lithuanian's team he also underliend the fact that this game provides a golden opportunity to showcase their offensive strength. 

"For us, every international match is difficult but tomorrow's game is an opportunity for us to chalk up our first points in this group," Zerafa said to Times of Malta. 

"Naturally, every team provides you a stiff test at this level considering that the quality around Europe has increased, so we are expecting Lithuania to be a very aggressive side as they showed in the other matches, including against England and Scotland."

"Unfortunately, we have some players sidelined due to injuries but nonetheless, we have enough players to perform well and register a positive result."

With the likes of Michael Mifsud, Bjorn Kristensen and Jean Paul Farrugia unavailable, coach Ghedin opted to include some new faces in the squad including Lydon Micallef, who recently joined Ħamrun Spartans from Balzan and was protagonist of a hat-trick in last weekend's victory against Mosta.

"It is a new experience for me and I am delighted to form part of this group, considering also that we are preparing for two difficult games which enables me to absorb some of the pressure that surrounds any team at this level," Micallef explained. 

"The move to the Spartans was beneficial for me as I have the opportunity to gain more gameplay and having scored recently, I feel confident and ready whenever I get the nod in the coming Malta games." 

Lydon Micallef (far right) is one of the new faces in the Malta squad. Photo: Stephen Gatt