Mangia stresses on need to avoid mistakes

Following the 2-0 win over Gibraltar, Devis Mangia stressed on the need to avoid technical mistakes.

“In the first 25 minutes, we were absolutely in control but then we made some mistakes and started to lose confidence. However, compared to the previous games, we did more mistakes.”

“All players had the right attitude and now we do our evaluations and the squad will be trimmed to twenty five who will travel to Andorra and Latvia. The players, who are with us, all deserve to be in the squad. This was not an exam for anyone, it was just a step towards a place in the national squad.”

Apart from the injured Kyrian Nwoko, the players who failed to make the final cut were Ferdinando Apap of Hibernians and English-born Joseph Muscatt.

“Gibraltar came to play here, adapting their system to our team because they came to play 5-4-1. This is how they played during the first half and then then changed to 4-4-2. For us, it was the first time that an opponent tried to create problems, adapting their system to our idea of football. Practically they were playing man-to-man with five at the back. This created some problems in the beginning but I think we still had the control of the game. We lost a little bit of confidence in the last fifteen minutes of the first half and we did too much technical mistakes.”

“Andorra took advantage of these technical mistakes. One has also to mention the condition of the pitch which is not in a good condition. However, clearly we have to improve and avoid mistakes.”

Malta faces Andorra on Saturday in another match from Group D1 of the the UEFA Nations League and then Latvia on Tuesday.