Malta champions Valletta will be facing Hungary's Ferencvaros this evening at the Centenary Stadium in the second leg of their 2nd qualifying round tie. (Kick off at 8pm).

They enter this evening's clash in arrears having lost the first leg in Budapest last week by a 3-1 scoreline.

And now they need a third comeback to advance to the next round where the winners of this tie will be facing Georgia's Saburtalo or Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb. The latter are leading 2-0 after last week's first leg in Georgia.

In the first round, Valletta had eliminated Dudelange of Luxembourg on the away goals - the matches had ended 2-2 and 1-1 and the citizens qualified on the away goals rule.

In the match in Luxembourg, Valletta made a great second half comeback to earn a draw after having been 2-0 in arrears in the first half.

In Budapest last week, Valletta also made a partial comeback. In fact, they scored that important away goal after having been 3-0 in arrears. And that might mean a lot in today's match.

In fact, Valletta need a good win this evening to qualify. Victories by a single goal (2-1 or 1-0) will not be enough and a 3-1 scoreline in favour of Valletta will see the match going into extra time.

It is not going to be easy. First of all, Valletta will have to avoid suffering a goal. And they will also have to go into attacking mode in an effort to score the goals that matter.

Whether or not they are successful, one still has to see, but one thing is certain - they are still in the reckoning.

Their performance in Budapest was not bad as the result might indicate, but they will have to be more than alert at the back and powerful up front if they are to succeed.

"Difficult, but not impossible" - coach Darren Abdilla

City coach Darren Abdilla said yesterday he and his squad were aware that the match will be no easy task, but he added: "However, it will not be impossible. Following last week's performance in Budapest, I feel confident that my boys will rise to the occasion and give their one hundred per cent.

"We are certainly disappointed with the result of last week's match. I feel we could have avoided the three goals suffered and although they had some other chances, we could have even scored a second goal late in the match.

"We will be hampered once again by injuries and suspensions. Steve Borg and Nicholas Pulis are ruled out through suspension, while Bojan Kaljevic, Santiago Malano, Jonathan Caruana and Douglas Packer will be missing the match through injury. Moreover, goalkeeper Henry Bonello did not train yesterday, but I am confident that he will be declared fit to play," he said.

Abdilla is also aware of the strength of Ferencvaros. "We will be facing a strong team from every aspect. But we will be going down to win.

"I am sure that those subsituting the injured or suspended players will be up to the same standard. If we avoid mistakes at the back and be able to score the goals that we need, then we can beat our opponents and qualify for the next round," he said confidently.

Abdilla confirmed that he will be playing with two strikers without mentioning any names.

Defender Ryan Camilleri also addressed the press conference saying that the squad was confident. "We know that we can do it and we will be giving our all to try and qualify," he said.