Birkirkara will be making their first appearance of the new season in today’s second match of the Euro Cup against Trophy holders Floriana, losers in the first match against Valletta last Friday. Today’s match will also be played at the Hibernians Stadium and kicks off at 7.30pm.
The Stripes, who had a rather disappointing past season by their standards, still managed to qualify for an Europa League place and will be using this competition as a warm-up for this tough task ahead.
Birkirkara have changed since last season. Coach Paul Zammit and team manager Joe Abela have gone and Patrick Curmi is the new men at the Stripes’ helm. Birkirkara have also elected a new committee, with many new faces occupying the club’s administrative seats.
On Friday, Birkirkara announced the signing of under-21 international Leighton Grech from Hibernians. The winger was on loan with Vittoriosa Stars last season and left a very good impression in the Premier League.
Birkirkara are also expected to try out some new foreign players who have been on trial with the side over the past days. It was reported that an Italian, some Argentine forward and two Brazilians have also attracted interest by Birkirkara after the club parted company with all last season’s foreigners. It seems that Curmi wants to strengthen the defence, which leaked in too many goals last season.
In fact Spanish goalkeeper Jorge Mora, who won the championship with Birkirkara in 2008/2009, is making a return in goal for the new season
Birkirkara have still to agree terms with defender Joseph Zerafa to renew his contract while forward Michael Galea has decided to leave the club after a 14-year career with the Stripes as his contract expired.
Only a win will keep Floriana in the reckoning after they were defeated 2-1 by champions Valletta in the competition’s first match. Floriana are not as strong as last season, especially with the departures of Christian Cassar, Thomas Paris and Daniel Nwoke. Against Valletta, they also gave a trial to three new foreign players, namely Italian forward Salvatore Amirante, French wide player Seydi and English defender John Handicker, but they need more time to settle in the side. Forward Ryan Darmanin has returned to his old club after a loan spell with Marsaxlokk last season.
Today, Malta’s three representatives in European competition will know their fate as the draws for the Champions League and Europa League qualifying rounds take place in UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon at noon.
Valletta’s opponents in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round will be one of Andorra’s Santa Coloma or SP Tre Fiori of San Marino. The Maltese champions, together with Luxembourg’s champions F91 Dudelange are seeded in this phase, because of a better coefficient.
In the second qualifying round draw that immediately follows, 17 seeded teams will be paired against the remaining 17 teams, including the two sides who qualify from the previous round.
Valletta might get a very tough draw in the second round if, as expected, they overcome the first hurdle. Among the seeded teams, BATE Borisov of Belarus, Maccabi Haifa of Israel, Norway’s Rosenberg, FK Partizan of Serbia and Apoel of Cyprus may be their next opponents.
Birkirkara are one of 50 teams in the draw of the first qualifying round of the Europa League, among which English side Fulham who qualified through a Fair Play UEFA spot. Birkirkara will be in the third of five groups, each comprising five seeded and five unseeded teams.
Floriana, as domestic Cup winners, will start in the second qualifying round. 80 teams go into the draw and Floriana have the lowest coefficient of them all.