Malta’s opening fixture in the World Cup 2018 qualifying round will be against Scotland on 4 September at Ta’ Qali national stadium.

A report on the MFA website says that Scotland may not have the following in our country which England has but several players in their squad are quite familiar as they form part of English Premier League teams which the Maltese can watch regularly on television.

The attraction goes further than that when taking into account Malta’s chances of obtaining a satisfactory result against the Scots who are currently having a lean spell in international football.

Malta’s coach Pietro Ghedin will need to be wary of this fact since Scotland will be out to obtain a flying start in the group matches in their bid to give themselves hope of eventual qualification to the finals.

The Italian will certainly have worked on his players’ physical and technical condition in this early part of the season and made provision for putting up the best possible opposition to the visitors.

Tickets are on sale as from today.

Past results between the two countries:

22 March 1988         Malta 1 Scotland 1 (F)

29 May 1990             Malta 1 Scotland 2 (F)

17 Feb 1993              Scotland 3 Malta 0 (WC)

17 Nov 1993             Malta 0 Scotland 2 (WC)

01 Jan 1997               Malta 2 Scotland 3 (F)

Photos and video: Domenic Aquilina