Malta plays the first game from Group G of the European Qualifiers leading to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosting Finland at the National Stadium on Friday, kick-off at 20:45. A match which will also mark the debut of new Malta national head coach Emilio De Leo.
After failing to earn any points in the qualifiers leading to the EURO 2024, Malta started 2024 with two draws in friendly matches against Slovenia and Belarus at Ta’ Qali but a 7-1 defeat to Czechia in a friendly match in June, followed by another defeat to Greece, were the prelude for a disappointing performance and a 2-0 defeat to Moldova in the opening match from the UEFA Nations League Group D2. Malta defeated Andorra 1-0 away from home but the defeat in Chisinau led to the dismissal of coach Michele Marcolini.
Davide Mazzotta took over as interim coaching leading the team to a 1-0 win over Moldova at home and after a 2-0 win over Liechtenstein in a friendly match, even a win over Andorra would have not avoided second place in the group with Malta finishing their commitments on seven points after being held in a goalless draw.
The Malta FA appointed Emilio De Leo as the new coach and this qualifier against Finland will be his first match in charge of the Malta national team.
Addressing the media on Thursday, the former member of the Serbia, Sampdoria, Milan, Torino and Bologna coaching staff said “The first impression was very positive. In the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to meet over fifty players. We started to get to know each other, which as I always say, must not only be from the technical aspect, but also with regards to human relationship. Then on the pitch we had some technical-tactical indications that were honestly very positive. This is a group that has the desire to work daily with determination and method. They are eager to learn new things. I believe that for a coach this is the first positive aspect that should be underlined when starting a new adventure. I found great availability, great guys because it is not easy, in such a short time, to be immediately respectful and ready to start a new path.”
When asked with regards to his objectives ahead of this game, De Leo said “We have short-term and long-term goals. The long-term ones concern the journey, the new cycle, the mentality, the methodology, the growth of the talented Maltese players. This is the goal to pursue and also the most noble one to achieve. On the other hand, there are the technical and sporting objectives. The first is this match that we have to face. As I always tell the boys, the goal is to win, notwithstanding the difficulties and technical obstacles that we will clearly encounter. We are facing an organized team that has physicality as its strong point. They have experienced players in top-tier European clubs. They have strong players in transitions. I told the players that we need to have a lot of respect because on the other side, we have players who know how to make the most of their qualities and skills. We have to face the game … look at the opponent in the face and we have to do it with personality. We have to show our identity. We must make it clear that we are a courageous team, a team that is not afraid to take responsibility. The attitude, the approach must be our first objective.”
“I found a group used to working well and is well trained. We have game principles that need to be trained. Game principles go beyond the game systems that we try to adopt. It is important to understand how to do it, what the objectives are in the construction phase, understand how and where to create numerical superiority, how and where to attack the spaces, how and where to have preventive marking to prevent the opponents from being able to restart. These are game principles that go beyond game systems. We are trying to train the players daily on this. I hope that we will immediately see a team that has game ideas, that has a good personality, courage and identity and is not afraid to take on responsibilities.”
“There is a lot of room for improvement because if the players show their availability, if they show they want to learn new things, we have a great path ahead that we can develop. We have short-term technical objectives. Play the best football we can play. Do it while showing self-esteem. Understand that destiny is always in our hands. Everything we need is inside us. We do everything step by step and then when we look back, we will see where we have arrived. I understand that expectations are always high but we do not back down because here I have found everything from an organizational point of view, in the technical quality, in the quality of work, logistics and structures. We must continue to work hard. We will raise the bar bit by bit and see what level we have reached,” said the Malta coach.
For this game, De Leo has two new foreign-based players at his disposal – James Carragher of Wigan Athletic and Illyas Chouaref of FC Sion.
De Leo said “Ilyas Chouref was welcomed with great respect and affection by the team. Credit must be given to the team because it has important moral values but also to Ilyas who joined the team with great empathy and availability, immediately showing his technical qualities but demonstrating right away that he wants to make himself available and make sacrifices. The atmosphere of enthusiasm surrounding Chouaref, Carragher and the other new players underlines how much this energy must be created between the team and the fans the environment. What happened in the open training session gave us an incredible boost which is what football is all about.”
Matthew Guillaumier added that the addition of new players like James Carragher and Ilyas Chouaref definitely gives the coach more choice.
“I think they add quality. You can see from training sessions that they do have quality and experience in different leagues which obviously helps us, the Maltese players who are already here. We can learn from them and speak to them about their experiences – how they see football and how they play in a different way and learn from that as well. They are both great guys and integrated well within the squad.”
“I would also like to mention the young players who joined us. They are also good additions … they are promising and integrated very well with us,” added Guillaumier.
The squad, in fact, includes Jake Azzopardi of Valletta and Mattia Veselji who moved to Serbia to join FK Smederevo 1924 in January along with promising goalkeeper James Sissons of Melita.
Photos courtesy of Andre Farrugia/Malta FA
For these matches, Malta could not count on the suspended Gabriel Mentz and the injured Jurgen Degabriele, Kemar Reid, Jodi Jones and Dylan Scicluna. On the other hand, Matthew Grech, Juan Corbalan, Mattias Ellul, Aleandro Garzia, Neil Micallef, Sven Xerri, Andy Borg, Jake Grech, Bjorn Kristensen, Dunstan Vella, Luke Montebello and Isaiah Chukunyere, who were part of the provisional squad, did not make it to the final twenty six. Ellul, Xerri, Borg and Chukunyere joined the Under-21 squad which will be playing a friendly match against Estonia on Tuesday.
The full squad is made up of:
Goalkeepers
Rashed Al Tumi (FC Sheriff Tiraspol – MDA), Henry Bonello (Ħamrun Spartans FC), James Sissons (Melita FC).
Defenders
Myles Beerman (Sliema Wanderers FC), Jean Borg (Sliema Wanderers FC), Steve Borg (Ħamrun Spartans FC), Ryan Camenzuli (Ħamrun Spartans FC), James Lee Carragher (Wigan Athletic FC – ENG), Adam Magri Overend (Sliema Wanderers FC), Zach Muscat (Sanliurfaspor – TUR), Enrico Pepe (Gżira United FC), Carlo Zammit Lonardelli (Floriana FC), Kurt Shaw (Hibernians FC).
Midfielders
Jake Azzopardi (Valletta FC), Matthew Guillaumier (FKS Stal Mielec Spolka Akcyjna – POL), Brandon Diego Paiber (Valletta FC), Steven Pisani (Sliema Wanderers FC), Alexander Satariano (Birkirkara FC), Teddy Teuma (Stade de Reims FC – FRA).
Forwards
Joseph Essien Mbong (Ħamrun Spartans FC), Paul Mbong (Birkirkara FC), Kyrian Nwoko (Sliema Wanderers FC), Basil Tenywa Tuma (Reading U21 – ENG), Mattia Veselji (FK Smederevo 1924 – SRB), Trent Anthony Buhagiar (Kapaz P.F.K. – AZE), Chouaref Ilyas (FC Sion – SUI).
Meanwhile, for Finland, this match provides the opportunity to bounce back after a highly disappointing UEFA Nations League campaign during which they failed to collect any points in a group in League B which featured England, Greece and the Republic of Ireland. In ten matches played throughout 2024 (their only positive results were a 2-1 win over Estonia and a 2-2 draw with Scotland in two friendly matches as they also lost the EURO 2024 play-off to Wales, 4-1.
Earlier this year, Finland have named Jacob Friis as their new coach. The 48-year-old Dane arrives to the Finland post after serving as assistant coach at German side Augsburg, after serving as head coach at Danish sides Viborg and AaB.
When asked for what he thinks will be the new Finland coach’s approach, Emilio De Leo said “When there is a change of coach, there is a great desire, great enthusiasm. I do not want to judge what the attitude of the opponents will be. All the players have the desire to demonstrate. We have players in front of us who have qualities that we know. We must be ready for the different interpretations of the game plan depending on what their strategy and their game system will be.”
Friis named 25 players in the squad which will face Malta on Friday and Lithuania in Kaunas on Monday. The team will feature several new players with HJK central defender Ville Tikkanen selected for the first time and Vålerenga defender Noah Pallas returning to the squad after a long absence. Cracovia central defender Arttu Hoskonen is ruled out due to injury.
Only three players play in the domestic league with the rest of the players, plying their trade in Germany, Italy, Scotland, Sweden, the USA, France, Norway, Greece, Czechia, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Poland.
The squad is made up of:
goalkeepers Lukas Hradecky (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Jesse Joronen (Venezia FC), Viljami Sinisalo (Celtic FC);
defenders Robert Ivanov (Eintracht Braunschweig), Miro Tenho (Djurgårdens IF), Daniel O’Shaughnessy (HJK), Ville Tikkanen (HJK), Leo Väisänen (Austin FC), Jere Uronen (AIK), Tuomas Ollila (Paris FC), Noah Pallas (Vålerenga Fotball), Nikolai Alho (Asteras Tripolis), Adam Ståhl (Djurgårdens IF);
midfielders Kaan Kairinen (AC Sparta Praha), Glen Kamara (Al-Shabab FC), Matti Peltola (D.C. United), Rasmus Schüller (Djurgårdens IF), Anssi Suhonen (SSV Jahn Regensburg), Robin Lod (Minnesota United FC);
forwards Oliver Antman (Go Ahead Eagles), Fredrik Jensen (FC Augsburg), Benjamin Källman (Cracovia), Joel Pohjanpalo (Palermo FC), Teemu Pukki (HJK), Daniel Håkans (Lech Poznan).
This will be the ninth clash between Malta and Finland. Malta defeated Finland 2-0 in the Rothmans Tournament in 1988 and following a goalless draw in another match from the Rothmans Tournament in 1989, Malta earned a point in a 1-1 draw with Finland at Ta’ Qali in the EURO 92 qualifiers in November 1990. The two teams met in Helsinki in May 1991 with Finland winning 2-0. Since then the two teams played four friendly matches with Finland winning 2-0 in March 1998, 2-1 in March 2004 and 2-1 in March 2010 at Ta’ Qali and 5-0 in Turkey in March 2018.
Malta vs Finland will be controlled by Italian officials, namely referee Simone Sozza, assisted by Giovanni Baccini and Davide Imperiale, fourth official Andrea Colombo, Video Assistant Referee Gianluca Aureliano and Assistant Video Assistant Referee Rosario Abisso.