Will Malta break the duck against Lithuania?
Domenic Aquilina
Malta will face Lithuania tonight at the National Stadium, kick off 20:45, in their penultimate commitment from the FIFA 2018 World Cup Qualifying Group F a campaign which sees Malta still pointless at the bottom of the group with only two goals to show against the 21 conceded to date. The only other football nations still pointless in their respective groups are San Marino, Liechtenstein and Gibraltar.
Three days later on Sunday, the boys in red will officially conclude their Group F commitments with a tricky match in Trnava against Slovakia.
Earlier on last week, head coach Pietro Ghedin also announced that he will be stepping down from his post after these last two matches which more or less was in the air for these last couple of months.
Many a football follower believe that Lithuania should at least be the match where Malta can notch a point or possibly more.
Lithuania have lost their last five qualifiers on the trot. Ironically their sole Group F victory arrived a year ago in when they beat Malta 2-0 in Lithuania. Clearly this is the match that this Malta team has to stand up with pride and show that at least we can get something out of this reachable match.
So where do we go from here? And who will be the next Maltese coach come December? Will another foreign coach land the Malta job or will the Malta FA opt for a local one this time round?
These are all big questions that the ardent Maltese football follower is asking at the moment.
Clearly this has been another disappointing qualifying campaign for Maltese football. Malta needs a real motivator at this point in time. In all probabilities another foreign coach will follow in Ghedin’s footsteps. Some agree, some do not.
The Malta Independent spoke with Valletta defender Steve Borg about the Lithuania match and Ghedin stepping down as head coach “Lithuania will be a difficult opponent. It will not be easy but personally as always I will be giving my best together with my team mates. Ghedin’s resignation has not changed anything in the Malta camp. We are all focused on this match at this point.”
In the four previous head-tohead meetings with Lithuania, Lithuania beat us twice, Malta have won once, with the two teams settling for a draw in another meeting.