Just two days after the UEFA Euro 2012 final in Kiev, a new season is about to start this evening with the qualifying round fixtures of the Champions League for season 2012-2013.
Local champions Valletta FC will be among those in action as they will be facing Andorran side FC Lusitans at the Hibernians Stadium in Corradino. Kick-off is at 7.30pm.
New coach Mark Miller will be leading the side in this new adventure in the Champions League – City’s dream is to become the first Maltese side to qualify for the third round and possibly the Group stages.
Although the tie sees the Citizens as hot favourites to go through, their dream will be facing a tough obstacle if they qualify for the next round. Waiting for them is none other than the famous Serbian side Partizan Belgrade.
Valletta’s eyes, however, are on this encounter and this evening, they will be expected to go all out to register a convincing win against this lesser known side so as to make the second leg in Andorra next week a formality.
Last season Valletta beat San Marino’s SP Tre Fiori easily at this stage but then lost to FK Ekranas of Lithuania in the next phase.
This season, the side is lacking the services of goalkeeper Andrew Hogg who has moved to Paralimni of Cyprus, while veteran Gilbert Agius has called it a day and will only be on the bench as Mark Miller’s assistant.
The citizens, however, have signed some new foreigners, among them Brazilians Jusselio Da Silva, Riccardo Da Rocha Filho and Jhonnattan. Also, in goal, they will have a new signing in the form of 25-year-old Dutchman André Krul.
Miller was quoted on uefa.com as saying that he does not expect today’s match to be easy. “There are no easy games in football and this will be no exception.” But he also feels the side is well prepared to face the Andorrans.
Miller has all the players in his squad at his disposal. In fact, his only problem is the final selection.
The City squad includes the following players this season:
Y. Cini, A. Krul, J. Caruana, S. Borg, I. Azzopardi, Jhonnattan, J. Benites de Conceicao, D. Grima, J. Da Silva, D. Falzon, C. Frendo, M. Mifsud, R. Briffa, E. Agius, D. Rocha dos Santos, R. da Rocha Filho, W. Barbosa, T. Scerri, K. Sammut, I. Zammit.
Today’s matches
First qualifying round
Dudelange-Tre Penne
Valletta -Lusitans
Linfield-B36