National coach Dusan Fitzel is in Budapest to spy on Malta’s next opponents on Wednesday – Hungary – in their match against Turkey today.
With Malta inactive in today’s programme, the Czech coach took the opportunity to go and watch Hungary in action, leaving his assistant Mark Miller to address the press yesterday.
The Englishman said he felt that the local boys should try to get something from this match – the third in this qualifying round. “It will help lift their morale. We are playing at home and the players are mostly at our disposal with the exception of the injured Ciantar and the suspended Woods.
“Fitzel has good options as replacements for Ciantar in Kenneth Scicluna, Peter Pullicino or Claude Mattocks while George Mallia is returning for the suspended Ivan Woods,” he said.
Miller said no newcomers were added to the squad for this match, but it would be possible to see some new faces in the forthcoming months where Malta will only be playing friendlies against Lithuania (next month) and Austria (in February) before its next qualifying round match in Group C in March. “One of them could be a certain Ryan Baldacchino who plays for Gretna of Scotland’s first division. We might be able to have him here next month for the Lithuania match and get a close look at him in action,” he confided.
Miller also said that the squad is still missing a number of players. “Players like Etienne Barbara is not yet fully fit, while Massimo Grima, Orosko Anonam and Roderick Briffa are still recovering following an operation.”
Captain Gilbert Agius said Hungary had always been difficult opponents and that will be the case next Wednesday once again. “However, after our performance against Turkey and even to some extent the defeat against Bosnia, we hope to do better and get a positive result,” he said.
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Squads
Malta
The provisional squad of 22 players named by Dusan Fitzel:
Goalkeepers: Justin Haber, Andrew Hogg, Mario Muscat
Defenders: Ian Azzopardi, Luke Dimech, Brian Said, Kenneth Scicluna, Steve Wellman
Midfielders: Gilbert Agius, Roderick Bajada, Christian Cassar, Trevor Cilia, George Mallia, Claude Mattocks, Jamie Pace, Peter Pullicino, Kevin Sammut, Gareth Sciberras
Strikers: Andrew Cohen, Michael Mifsud, Terence Scerri, Andre Schembri
Hungary
The squad named by coach Peter Bozsik for the Malta match:
Goalkeepers: Gabor Kiraly (Crystal P.), Marton Fulop (Tottenham)
Defenders: Casaba Feher (PSV Eindhoven), Zoltan Kiss (Teva), Laszlo Eger (Ejido), Vilmos Vanczak (St Truiden), Leandro (Teva), Roland Juhasz (Anderlecht), Vilmos Sebok (Zte FC), Peter Halmosi (Teva), Adam Komplos (Teva)
Midfielders: Pal Dardai (Hertha Berlin), Andras Horvath (Spron), Balasz Toth (Kayseri), Attila Polonkai (REAC), Peter Kabat (Pasching)
Strikers: Szabolcs Huszti (Hannover), Zoltan Gera (West Bromwich), Peter Czvitkovics (MTK Budapest), Imre Szabics (Mainz), Sandor Torghelle (PAOK Thessaloniki), Thomas Sowunmi (Slovacko).