Valletta FC coach Ton Caanen and team manager Niki Saliba must have left Ireland more than confident that their team will be able to survive the Europa League second qualifying round as well.

On Friday night, they were at Richmond Park watching their forthcoming opponents, St Patrick’s Athletics FC, lose at home to Galway 1-2 in an Irish Premier League match.

Guy had given the home side the lead near the end of the first half, but it was certainly not enough as their opponents, scored twice within two minutes early in the second half to turn defeat into victory. The scorers were J. O’Shea (penalty) in the 56th and S. Kelly two minutes later.

Valletta will be travelling to Ireland on Tuesday. The match – the first leg of this second qualifying round tie is being played on Thursday, commencing at 8.45pm (Malta time). The second leg is scheduled to be played on 23 July in Malta.

Valletta advanced into this round after eliminating Keflavik of Iceland on a 5-2 aggregate in the first qualifying round. They won 3-0 in the Malta leg and drew 2-2 in Iceland.