National team coach Ray Farrugia praised the performance of the national team on Thursday and said that the players gave everything they had. He had praise for the Kosovo side who said they have a very bright future ahead of them.

Farrugia acknowledged that Kosovo were superior and that they fully deserved their victory. He said that Malta suffered a lot in the first half, even though the Malta team never lost its composure and kept trying to play positive football.

He said that in the break the Maltese believed in themselves and that they are still in the game, and showed it at the start of the second half, playing very good and scoring a very good equaliser. He said that Malta had a very good moment after obtaining the equaliser but then we suffered the second goal and had Michael Mifsud sent off in a couple of minutes.

Farrugia was pleased with the performance of Corbolan who made his debut and Ferdinando Apap who started from the first minute for the first time. He said that these young players together with Joseph Mbong are the future of the national team.

He said that he said that he had to substitute both Paul Fenech and Andre Schembri, since they had asked in the interval that they could not play the whole ninety minutes. Farrugia said that these players need to be fresh for the difficult match in Baku, a match in which Malta will be without captain Michael Mifsud.