Malta will be meeting mighty Denmark this evening at Ta’ Qali in a World Cup qualifier and after the encouraging goalless draw against Albania last month, national coach Dusan Fitzel is now hoping that his boys will be able to give Denmark a hard time.

Addressing a crowded press conference yesterday at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Floriana, Fitzel said that he acknowledged that Denmark are a very strong side and the number one team in the Group at the moment. “Portugal are my best bet to win the Group and outright qualification, but at present, the Danes seem to be the strongest. Everyone knows that not always does the best team triumph. However, Denmark remain one of the strongest teams and I can hardly find any weaknesses in their side,” he explained.

As usual, the coach from the Czech Republic said he would not be revealing his starting formation. “I do not know yet myself who will be starting,” he said. But on a question from The Malta Independent, on whether he intended giving the young Andrei Agius a starting role after his impressive performances against Ferencvaros and Albania, the coach confirmed that the Igea Virtus defender will certainly be in the starting line-up.

Fitzel said he expected tonight’s match to be very tough especially the opening minutes, where he is expecting the Danes to push hard in attack to try and score an early goal to build up their confidence. He added: “That is where we have to be on the alert. During their training sessions in Malta, I noted that they concentrated mainly on high balls in the area. That is going to be their main weapon and we have to be at our very best to overcome this situation which is totally in favour of our opponents, considering the height of their players. And that makes me afraid of this match. Some of their players are 30cm higher than our players! However, if we defend well, and avoid conceding a goal till the interval, then I am sure confidence will creep into our players and, with the support of the crowd, I hope that this could also be a match to remember.”

Fitzel might be making some changes to the side that drew with Albania especially with Jamie Pace and Daniel Bogdanovic returning to the squad. “My team is not a club team, playing almost every week. The Albania match is now five weeks away and since then, there have been developments which I have to take into consideration in the best interests of the team. I cannot leave the in form players out of the side.

“Our aim is to get the best possible result. We will be trying to keep them away from our goal as much as possible. One good thing for us is that Arsenal’s Bendtner was injured during training on Thursday and may not be included today as a precaution to have him available for the match against Albania next Wednesday.

Asked whether to have six players playing abroad was beneficial to the side, Fitzel quickly responded: “Of course, but six are not enough. I want to have all those in the squad playing abroad, if possible. That is how they learn. Unfortunately, I can note the difference between the foreign based and locally based players. The former are more professional in their approach while for the rest, it’s just fun to be in the national squad. Unfortunately I do not have much choice and have to rely on such players as they are the best available locally. That also shows the big difference between the European leagues and the Maltese league where the standard is still very low,” he said.

Fitzel added that in his opinion a bad result today will not influence the performance of the team in next Wednesday’s clash against Hungary. “First of all, I cannot say who is making the trip to Hungary. Five of my players – Jamie Pace, Sean Bajada, Gilbert Agius, Luke Dimech and Aaron Xuereb – are all facing suspension if they receive a yellow card today. There may also be some injuries in the Denmark match. So we will only be able to make the necessary adjustments on Sunday. However, I am much aware that when we have played two matches, in most cases, the second match produced the better result. Apart from that, Malta has a good tradition – results-wise – against Hungary, and that makes me feel optimistic that we can get a good result in Budapest,” he stated.

Asked what tactics he will be using tonight against Denmark, Fitzel said: “It is not just against Denmark, even against Hungary, I have to wait till the opening minutes to see what tactics they will be using. We have to adapt to the situations that we will be facing. I am aware that some of my players can play in different positions, so we will be able to adapt quickly. Just like the Danes, we have trained a lot on crosses this week, but then, it depends on what happens on the field of play. I simply hope that most of the balls, if not all, will land on our players’ heads.”

The coach said that all the teams above Malta stood a chance to qualify and that makes Malta’s position even more difficult. “Like all the top teams in the group, the Danes are coming here not just to win the three points, but also to score as many goals as possible because they know that a second place might also mean qualification. They have a very balanced team, enough to say that they impressed me a lot in their 2-3 away win against Portugal. That is enough to show their strength. And what do you expect with players of the calibre of Rommedahl, Larssen, Agger, Poulsen, Larsen and Jorgensen, not to mention the others,” he said.

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Probable Malta team

Fitzel is expected to name a 4-1-4-1 formation which is likely to be the following:

Justin Haber (Sheffield United); Jonathan Caruana (Hibernians), Andrei Agius (Igea Virtus), Luke Dimech (Valletta FC), Sean Bajada (Birkirkara FC); Gilbert Agius (Valletta FC); Roderick Briffa (Valletta FC), Jamie Pace (Valletta FC), Michael Mifsud (Barnsley FC), Daniel Bogdanovic (Barnsley FC); Andre Schembri (Carl Zeiss Jena).

The reserves are the following:

Andrew Hogg (Valletta FC), Ian Azzopardi (Sliema W.), Alex Muscat (Sliema W.), Andrew Cohen (Hibernians), Ryan Fenech (Hamrun S.), Etienne Barbara (FC Verl), Terence Scerri (Hibernians).

Polish officials will be controlling the match. The referee is Tomasz Mikulski, first assistant is Piotr Sadczuk and the second assistant will be Marcin Borkowski. The fourth official is Robert Malek