Malta faces Moldova in the first of four UEFA Nations League Group D2 matches at the Stadionul Zimbru in Chisinau on Saturday, kick-off at 18:00.
It is definitely no easy game for Michele Marcolini’s side against against a team which lost just four out of the last fourteen matches. In fact they won four against Poland, Faroe Islands, Cayman Islands and Cyprus and drew six against Faroe Islands, Czechia, Austria, Poland, Albania and North Macedonia.
In the European qualifiers, they fiinished their commitments on ten points in a group which included Albania, Czechia, Poland and Faroe Islands. Truly a remarkable number of points, finishing just one point ahead of third-placed Poland who qualified for the EURO along with Albania and Czechia.
However, it is clear that promotion in the UEFA Nations League has been the main objective for Malta in recent years and overcoming such a challenge is what the team has to aim for.
Speaking to maltafootball.com, Malta coach Michele Marcolini said “I am very happy to start this Nations League campaign. Since I arrived here, it was clear what the objective was and finally here we are. We start with the ‘worst’ opponent. On paper, Moldova is the favourite in the group. They gained a lot of points in the EURO qualifying group and they also won against Poland that played in the UERO. They showed that they are a very good team and they have experienced players that play in Europe: Holland, Italy and Russia and so they have a lot of good players. But I am very happy how we worked.”
“As always, I am confident of my players with how they are focussed, how they trained but only the only says the last word. Hopefully the result will good for us but we tried to prepare for the match in the best way possible and we will see what happen. Of course, the match will be difficult … will be tough. It is the first match of the group and they play home and so I am expecting an aggressive start from Moldova but we have to be prepared.”
When asked whether the fact that Malta is playing in a group of three matches, puts more pressure on the team in each of these matches, knowing that each game could be decisive, the Malta coach said |I think it is useless to think about the future. We have to live the moment. We have to focus on this match. Then we will see. For sure, a group of three teams is not ideal. I would have preferred a group of four because there is the chance to recover from a bad result but we are three teams and everything could happen against everyone. Every national team could miss points against another and so until there is time enough to recover points, why not. We are here to gain a positive result because it would be important also to start in a positive way for the enthusiasm. We will have a very short time to recover after this match before we play in Andorra and therefore mentally it would be important to gain a positive result. “
Injuries have been a major concern for the Malta national coach ahead of this international window. Experienced defenders Steve Borg and Enrico Pepe, among others, sustained injuries over the past weeks which ruled them out of this double header and Bjorn Kristensen was a late withdrawal from the squad after sustaining an injury in training.
“This window was a little bit tough. We lost a lot of players due to injuries. We lost Kristensen during this window. We have Teddy Teuma that played only fifteen minutes since the beginning of the season and is not feeling so well unfortunately. It is difficult that he could play and of course he is the most talented player and is so important for us.”
“But in the end I do not like to hide myself and hide the team behind the problem. We are a good team and we already played good matches without some players who were missing. So we have only to be confident and be aware that we cannot face a team like Moldova without aggressivity and the right mindset because it will be the first match of the group. I beleive Moldova will be very aggressive and we have to be ready to face this kind of behaviour from their side,” concluded Marcolini.
The squad includes Hamrun Spartans defender Mattias Ellul and Jake Vassallo of Mosta while Adam Magri Overend is back after missing the June international window.
The full squad at the disposal of Marcolini is made up of:
Goalkeepers
Henry Bonello (Hamrun Spartans FC), Rashed Al Tumi (FC Sheriff Tiraspol – MOL), Matthew Grech (Zabbar St Patrick FC)
Defenders
Kurt Shaw (Hibernians FC), Jean Borg (Sliema Wanderers FC), Zach Muscat (No club), Jake Vassallo (Mosta FC), Luke Tabone (Haverfordwest County AFC – UK), Mattias Ellul (Ħamrun Spartans FC)
Midfielders
Joseph Essien Mbong (Ħamrun Spartans FC), Carlo Zammit Lonardelli (Floriana FC), Adam Magri Overend (Sliema Wanderers FC), Ryan Camenzuli (Ħamrun Spartans FC), Myles Beerman (Sliema Wanderers FC), Teddy Teuma (Stade de Reims FC), Matias Garcia (Floriana FC), Matthew Guillaumier (FKS Stal Mielec Spolka Akcyjna – POL), Nikolai Muscat (Marsaxlokk FC), Yannick Yankam (Lexington SC), Steven Pisani (Sliema Wanderers FC), Jan Busuttil (Balzan FC)
Forwards
Luke Montebello (Hamrun Spartans), Paul Mbong (Birkirkara FC), Kyrian Nwoko (Floriana FC), Kemar Reid (Floriana FC), Jurgen Degabriele (Hibernians FC)
Over the past year and a half, Malta won just one match and drew two in friendly matches, defeating GIbraltar 1-0 and holding Slovenia and Belarus in draws. The EURO qualifying campaign ended with defeats, both at home and away to North Macedonia, Italy, Ukraine and England and in preparing ahead of these UEFA Nations League commitments, last June, Malta suffered a heavy 7-1 defeat to Czechia, losing 2-0 to Greece.
However the team should be eager to bounce in these games against Moldova and Andorra.
Malta and Moldova met eight times but six of these matches were either friendly matches or matches from the Malta international tournament. Moldova defeated Malta 2-0 in March 1999 at Ta’ Qali and 1-0 in August 2000 in Chisinau. Malta won 3-0 in February 2002, drew 0-0 in February 2004 and lost 0-2 in Frbruary 2006 in three matches at Ta’ Qali. In March 2007, in the EURO 2008 qualifiers, Malta held Moldova in a 1-1 draw away from home, losing 2-3 at Ta’ Qali in October 2007. The last meeting between the two goes back to March 2016 when the two teams shared the spoils in a goalless draw in a friendly match at Ta’ Qali.
Like Malta, Moldova will be aiming for promotion to League C where they already played in 2020. In 2022, they played in League D Group 1 and although they finished their commitments on level points with Latvia, the latter were promoted due to a better goal difference in the direct encounters.
Coach Sergei Clescenco’s squad includes no less than twenty foreign-based players.
The squad is made up of:
goalkeepers Dorian Railean (Gloria Buzău ROM), Dumitru Celeadnic (FC Sheriff), Nicolai Cebotari (FC Zimbru), Andrei Cojuhar (NK Veres Rivne UKR)
defenders Veaceslav Posmac (Boluspor TUR), Oleg Reabciuk (Spartak Moscova RUS), Sergiu Platica (FC Petrocub), Ioan-Călin Revenco (Puszcza Niepołomice, POL), Artur Crăciun (Puszcza Niepołomice POL), Vladislav Baboglo (FC Karpaty Lviv UKR), Victor Mudrac (FC Petrocub), Denis Marandici (Turan Tovuz PFK AZE), Andrei Motoc (Athens Kallithea FC GRE)
midfielders Artur Ioniță (Pisa SC ITA), Vadim Rață (FC Universitatea Cluj ROM), Mihail Caimacov (NK Slaven Belupo CRO), Nichita Moțpan (FC Fakel Voronej RUS), Victor Stînă (AEL Larissa GRE), Mihai Platica (FC Petrocub), Victor Bogaciuc (SC Oțelul Galați ROM), Serafim Cojocari (FC Zimbru), Dmitri Mandrîcenco (DFK Dainava LIT), Dan Pușcaș (FC Petrocub)
forwards Ion Nicolaescu (SC Heerenveen NED), Vitalie Damașcan (Maccabi Petah-Tikva FC ISR), Virgiliu Postolachi (FC CFR Cluj 1907 ROM), Maxim Cojocaru (SC Oțelul Galați ROM)
Moldova and Malta will be controlled by officials from Ukraine, namely referee Mykola Balakin, assisted by Oleksandr Berkut and Dmytro Zaporozhenko, fourth official Vitaliy Romanov, Video Assistant Referee Viktor Kopiievskyi and Assistant Video Assistant Referee Denys Shurman.