Malta U-21 national team coach Ivan Woods has described the team’s qualifier against Kazakhstan as the toughest test faced by his players so far as the two countries go head-to-head at the Tony Bezzina Stadium on Thursday (kick-off: 6pm).

The Malta youngsters have yet to pick up a point from their opening four matches but a more encouraging factor is the fact that the players have shown a consistent amount of improvement in terms of performance.

In fact, last month the team were unlucky to leave the Scottish city of Motherwell with a point in their bag only to concede a late goal and suffer a 2-1 defeat.

On Thursday, the team face a Kazakhstan team who have lost all their opening three matches and while there may be high expectations on the team’s chances to break their duck in the group, coach Ivan Woods said this could turn out to be counterproductive for his team.

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