Final match in current competition beckoning for the Malta Under 21 Team as they face daunting Spain in Melilla on Tuesday.
The city where the match is scheduled to be played is part of the Spanish territory but situated on the North African border with Morocco.
From the home game on Friday against Slovakia missing is Floriana duo of Aleandro Garzia and Andreas Vella, replaced in squad that travelled to Spain by Karl Mohnani, who plays his trade with Swansea University in Wales and Melita’s rising star Matthew Debattista.
Back to the closure of the current competition where the boys attained six points in total so far and scored nine goals (two goals each for Ayrton Attard and Mattia Veselji, one each for Jamie Sixsmith, Jake Engerer, Marcus Grima, Andrea Zammit and Joseph Zammit). Barring what the team has achieved in this competition coach Gilbert Agius gave out a detailed overview at the end of the current campaign and ahead of final ninety minutes.
“From day one since taking my role, my number one objective has been to nurture and develop this crop of players to make the step up and be in the reckoning and ready for the senior side. I truly believe there are few who are now closer of making the step if they maintain this attitude, keep growing in personality and strive further with their desire and commitment.
“These 18 months together with the rest of my technical staff we’ve witnessed considerable improvement, also willingness by the players to further construe our pathways and what is required by them in this unified game philosophy we are trying to implement, hasn’t been easy for some of them to adapt to this complete overhaul in the style of play.
“The period of time together has been relatively short, so we are really grateful that we as coaches have managed to transmit this new philosophy driven forward by the Technical Center, and we are pleased to note that some of these players in current squad could have the opportunity to work with us again as they are still eligible for next competition. Therefore it’s our duty to keep working closely with them, set out higher standards and reach our ultimate targets”, Agius declared.
Match on Tuesday vs Spain
Agius reacted towards the way we conceded all three goals in injury time of both halves on Friday’s 1-3 home defeat against Slovakia, his evaluation of the overall players’ performance was commendable nonetheless and went on to highlight that his players were disciplined and tactically almost perfect, hence the final result was significantly harsh considering the bold efforts by his group of players.
Conceding three goals beyond the normal 45 minutes of play in each half on Friday has injected more resolve to avoid these situations in the 90 minutes on Tuesday.
Gilbert Agius acknowledged that “Spain on Tuesday will be very tough, they are top of the group already having already qualified to the final phase of European Championship. In their last match they netted six goals against Northern Ireland away from home, so we are fully aware of the strength of our opponents on Tuesday.
“However the way we lost and how proceeds evolved over the 90 minutes on Friday filled my players with more energy to perform once again at their very best, avoid silly mistakes, stay compact and disciplined, give our opponents no space to move freely with the ball in their feet and also take full advantage of our possession and transition play”, Coach Gilbert Agius concluded.
Spain vs Malta final UEFA European U21 Championship Group C match in Melilla on Tuesday at 8.00 pm Malta time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPMz-lksKbA
