The chances for the Malta national team to obtain a positive result against Sweden on away soil were next to nothing as they succumbed to a 3-0 defeat in their third Euro 2020 Group F qualifier in Solna on Friday.
Ray Farrugia’s men arrived in Sweden with their eyes firmly set on trying to extend the positive momentum generated from their opening two home outings, a 2-1 win over the Faroe Islands and a 2-0 defeat to Spain, as they looked to step up their development process.
A goal behind after two minutes of play did not really help Malta’s cause, as the Swedes propelled themselves towards a routine victory that could have been more pronounced had it not been for a string of fine saves from Henry Bonello.
Nonetheless, coach Farrugia still picked some positives from this match, in particular ahead of tomorrow’s home fixture against Romania that will wrap up the first part of this qualifying campaign.
The continuous introduction of young players is one of the pillars on which Farrugia is building his national team job.
Against Sweden, the former Under-21 coach handed a full debut to Jake Grech and Luke Montebello.
Such decisions meant that so far, the Malta coach is still experimenting with new players on the field but that does not affect his idea of football – build-up from the back, short passes or switching the ball towards the flanks and attempt quick passes near the opponents’ box to quicken the rhythm of play.
In fact, the Maltese side produced positive football, at least in the early stages of the first half, showing a lot of tenacity in keeping themselves composed after that early setback.
“We were aware of the difficulties of this game but to be honest, we were really surprised with the way we imposed ourselves in the first half,” Farrugia told The Sunday Times of Malta after the game.
“Unfortunately, in the second half, the level declined a bit and Henry Bonello managed come to the team’s rescue with some excellent saves.
“Now we will be focusing on the match against Romania where we are striving to gain a positive result.”
Fatigue on the Maltese players’ faces was clearly visible in the second 45 minutes, underlining the fact that the our players find it difficult to maintain a high tempo of football against professional players who feature in competitive games week in week out at club level.
Moreover, the quality of Sweden’s players emerged with Viktor Claesson, formerly of Ajax, and Emil Forsberg who is on the books of RB Leipzig, were the main orchestrators of their team and were making the most of Malta’s lack of discipline.
“From the point of view of the discipline on the field, I feel that the players lost it a bit and
that added insult to injury as Sweden kept pressing while we were struggling to maintain
our positioning,” Farrugia explained.
Meanwhile, injury problems to a number of key players made life difficult for Farrugia when making his team selection for the Sweden game.
This problematic situation forced him to use six offensive players, something very unusual for the 182nd-ranked team on the international stage.
Rowen Muscat partnered Luke Gambin in the middle of the park while ahead of them there were Grech, Alfred Effiong and Montebello.
Asked about the reason behind such formation, Farrugia said that there were no particular thoughts behind this selection but the main issue was the fact that some of the key players he intended to field were injured.
“Unfortunately, we lost Matthew Guillauimier, who played really well in the first two games and who could not be called up due to an injury,” Farrugia said.
“In addition, we had Bjorn Kristensen and Paul Fenech who arrived from their club duties with some injuries and were not fully fit to feature in Sweden.
“It was basically a fill in the blanks situation for us, especially given the limitation of the pool of players we have to choose from.”
No doubt that there is room for further improvement for the likes of Grech and Montebello at international level, but Farrugia was pleased with their displays given the raw experience they have on this stage.
“In my opinion, Jake Grech and Luke Montebello did a
good job against Sweden,” he said.
“We have to bear in mind that these players need to play more games of this level to start adapting themselves for certain type of matches. That is why I will continue to insert more young players into this group.”
In the meantime, Farrugia also added that the way the team reacted in the dressing room gives him confidence ahead of the rest of their qualifying campaign.
“After the game, all of the dressing room was disappointed with the result,” Farrugia explained.
“For me, that is a positive thing because I have been in some dressing rooms in the past that whenever we conceded, three, four or five goals, it was as if nothing had happened.”
Mifsud returns
Michael Mifsud has rejoined the Malta squad ahead of tomorrow’s match against Romania.
Mifsud missed the defeat to Sweden at the Friends Arena on Friday as he continued his recovery from a minor injury but the Malta captain has now been certified fit to return to the squad.
On the other hand, defender Jonathan Caruana will not be available for the Romania game because of injury.