Briffa and Sammut or Pullicino expected to fill Agius and Pace roles in midfield



Malta will be playing the first of two Euro 2008 qualifiers in the space of five days this afternoon in Budapest where Hungary will be aiming to taste revenge for their humiliating defeat against Dusan Fitzel’s boys a year ago.

This time, apart from Hungary playing at home in front of their own crowd, Fitzel also has a big problem in midfield as he has to reshuffle this department due to the forced absence of captain Gilbert Agius through injury and Jamie Pace, who is suspended.

These two players are obviously key players in Fitzel’s set-up, but it is a well known fact that all the other players in the coach’s squad are capable of filling those vacancies honourably.

In the past few days, it seemed evident that the favourite to take Gilbert Agius’s role in midfield could be Roderick Briffa of Sliema while Kevin ‘Viper’ Sammut of Marsaxlokk could well be Jamie Pace’s substitute, given that he has more or less the same characteristics as his Marsaxlokk team-mate – fighting qualities and packing a good shot, even in set-pieces. However, I would not be surprised if Peter Pullicino, also of Marsaxlokk, is given the job of starting the match, instead. He was also being seriously considered by Fitzel during the past few days.

If that is so, it means that Fitzel start with Birkirkara’s George Mallia on the left flank of midfield with Ivan Woods, having recovered from injury, taking his place on the right.

Last month, in the match against Turkey, Fitzel had made use of the following formation: J. Haber, K. Scicluna, I. Azzopardi, B. Said, L. Dimech, G. Agius, R. Briffa, M. Mifsud, I. Woods, A. Schembri and J. Pace.

Today, it seems as if Fitzel will keep the same four men at the back (Luke Dimech, who plays for English League Two side Macclesfield, joined the squad in Budapest on Thursday evening) while also retaining Michael Mifsud and Andre Schembri up front.

His starting line-up should not differ much from the following:

J. Haber, K. Scicluna, B. Said, L. Dimech, I. Azzopardi; I. Woods, R. Briffa, K. Sammut (P. Pullicino), G. Mallia, M. Mifsud, A. Schembri.

This match could also produce more problems for Fitzel in the light of next Wednesday’s home clash – perhaps even more important – against Moldova.

In fact, several players in the Malta squad are aware of the fact that if they receive a yellow card today, they will become unavailable for the Moldova match as they will be automatically suspended.

Today’s match, at the Ferenc Puskaas Stadium, formerly known as Nep Stadion, is to kick off at 4.20pm. It is being screened live by Smash TV.

The referee will be Karen Nalbandyan of Armenia. His assistants are Armenians Gegham Vardanyan and Arshak Knyazyan. The fourth official, also from Armenia, is Arman Amirkhanyan.