Valletta FC are expected to travel to Sardegna next month to play a friendly against Serie A club Cagliari as part of their build-up for the new BOV Premier League season, informed sources told The Sunday Times of Malta yesterday.

The match, to be played in Olbia on August 10, will be the second warm-up between the two clubs in the past 12 months as last year the Citizens were beaten 3-0 by Cagliari.

Valletta will head to Belarus on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s Europa League, second qualifying round, second leg, against FC Minsk. Last Thursday, the Citizens were held to a 1-1 draw by the eastern Europeans at the National Stadium.

If Valletta reach the next round of the competition, the friendly in Cagliari will probably have to be rescheduled or cancelled alto-gether as the dates of the Europa League third qualifying round are August 1 and 8.

That would leave very little time for Valletta to play a friendly as the BOV Premier League gets under-way on the weekend of August 17 and 18.

The Citizens launch their bid to regain the title with a match against Mosta.

Cagliari, meanwhile, have already arranged three friendlies for the next couple of weeks.

On July 31, they meet Olbia before a match against French lower league outfit GFC Ajaccio.

On August 7, Cagliari take on Spain’s Real Valladolid at the Nespoli stadium in Olbia.

The Serie A gets underway on August 24, meaning that if the friendly against Valletta is cancelled, Cagliari will have to find new opponents for coach Ivo Pulga to test his new signings and try out tactics before the first championship matches.