The Malta Under-21 national team will be back in action on Tuesday, facing North Macedonia in a friendly match in Skopje.

Ahead of a daunting new cycle rolling as from September, which will see Malta facing Spain, Belgium, Scotland, Hungary, and Kazakhstan, the team is at the tail end of a hectic training camp that lasted six weeks, with one final drill on Monday evening ahead of this friendly match.

In their last outing, Malta drew 1-1 with Slovakia’s Under-20 side with Mattia Veselji notching a deserved equaliser for Malta.

“We had really long time with the players, they worked tirelessly, myself and the rest of the coaching staff also noticed significant improvement both in terms of attitude and work-ethic by the players in their commitment to improving, as always the end of the season brings up some fatigue, but overall we’re pleased with the resilience and desire by the players over this training camp,” said coach Francesco Macri.

“This has also been a fruitful experience for myself, and the rest of my staff, Jonathan (Holland), Charles (Sciberras), and Karl (Attard), we thank the Association for this opportunity and look forward to the 90 minutes on Tuesday.”

“Our opponents on Tuesday are a very strong side, we’ve followed them on videos, and we understand they are a tough nut to crack, they also possess formidable individuals in their playing staff, with few foreign based also amongst their ranks, playing their trade in Portugal, Slovakia, also a key member of this North Macedonian team playing an important role with the first team of Dinamo Kyiv”.

“We want to perform at the best of our abilities, as always ball possession and tactical discipline are fundamental to stand a chance of a positive result in the 90 minutes on Tuesday, barring other aspects of the game as we’re aware we will face a side with plenty of physical ability, but we are positive in a solid performance and then we see the result,” concluded Macri.