I am disappointed by the comparisons made between the football teams of Malta and Iceland by the local media.

First off, they failed to report the draws of the two groups. Iceland faced Switzerland (easily the best team of the group), Albania, Cyprus, Slovenia and the poorest Norway of the last decades, surely no giants and teams that Malta got points from in the past. Malta faced giants Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Bulgaria and Armenia.

Malta played two fine games against the mighty Italy, losing both 0-2 and coming out with honours.

It had a great away victory over Armenia (who beat Denmark 4-0 in Copenhagen a week later, beat the Czech Republic in Prague and held Italy 2-2 draw in Italy). Malta had two unlucky home defeats against Denmark and Bulgaria.

The 6-0 defeat to Bulgaria in snow-bound Sofia was very bad but so were the conditions. The group ended on a sour note with two bad defeats against the Czech Republic and Denmark.

Local critics had a field day; it was like firing on the Red Cross. They failed to mention it was a good showing overall in this very difficult group, just as they failed to mention the teams in Iceland’s group.

Another thing that irks me is when we compare our football team to the rugby and water polo teams. In these sports we play against teams of our own class or a bit better. If the national team were to play in small groups they could perform well, as results in recent friendlies show: two wins over Liechtenstein home and away, an away win over Luxembourg, an away win over San Marino, plus a first win over the Faroe Islands. So well done to the MFA, coach Pietro Ghedin and the players.