Luxol St Andrews Futsal Club host Slovenian champions and ranked 9th in Europe Futsal klub Dobovec on Saturday, kick-off at 18:00, at the University of Malta in the UEFA Futsal Champions League main round.
It is Luxol’s third participation in this Main Round flirting in recent years with the very best in European Futsal following their involvement in 2017 in Deva, Romania, two years ago also in this Main Round stage in Prague, Czech Republic.
In this season’s competition Malta Futsal champions Luxol booked their place into the Last 32 after thrashing Austrian side Allstars 6-2 in the preliminary round in Neustadt last November.
Head Coach Gabriel Dobre is upbeat about the chances of his team in yet another possibility for Luxol to write history by becoming the first Maltese side ever to qualify to the Elite Round of competition alongside the best 16 teams in Europe.
Coach Dobre stressed, “In last few days we have stepped up training, positive about the attitude, desire and commitment of the boys, this is one big opportunity we must embrace and give our 110% to claim our ultimate target.
Adding, “We have all the necessary weapons to compete, we must not show too much respect to our opponents from Slovenia, for this match we have also enhanced our list of foreign players that will surely enable us to play at a good and equal level with our opponents thus ensure we do fire on all cylinders at this unique opportunity on Saturday being that our domestic league we play in week in week out is not so competitive”.
Club captain, long-serving talisman Mark Zammit outlined the in-depth preparation of his side to this match over the past week or so, “We must ensure to pull on the same end of the rope, if we do so I’m pretty confident we overcome this tough hurdle and reap the benefits of our recent efforts.
“We all know about the strength of our opponents on Saturday, Dobovec are a top side, they are ranked ninth in Europe therefore they are firm favourites to keep progressing, they are a side in the level of Barcelona and Benfica both deemed as two of the best Futsal sides currently in Europe, but we are also resolute and well prepared to this task ahead, we know what is entailed to edge our opponents and we’re surely ready for this fight on Saturday”, Zammit concluded.
Meanwhile, Brazilian experienced Beto is the newly signed player only arrived this week to play for Luxol in this enthralling UEFA match, he will surely add metal to an already strong side that includes Norway number one keeper Kenito Rakvaag, long serving Romanian Emil Raducu, likewise the always reliable Celino Alves is one of many Brazilian players in this powerful Luxol squad all very stylish and dynamic with the ball at their feet.
Luxol squad for Saturday :- Kenito Rakvaag, Dragan Obradovic, Andy Mangion, Giancarlo Sammut, Mark Zammit (c), Emil Andrei Raducu, Everton Veve, Leanderson Sant’anna, Maicon, Celino Alves, Beto, Marwan Telissi, Gia Nikvashvili, Evandro.
Match live-streamed on https://www.tvm.com.mt/mt