Malta were handed a tricky draw for this year’s UEFA Nations League as the national team were drawn against Latvia, Andorra and Faroe Islands in League D Group 1 during yesterday’s ceremony in Amsterdam on Tuesday.

The draw provides a challenging competitive start for new national teams head coach Devis Mangia who struck an upbeat note after the draw.

“The UEFA Nations League is the first phase of our project for the national team and we are looking forward to it,” Mangia said.

“The group is what it is, we know our opponents and I believe we can compete against them. We will be doing our utmost to do well and win points.

“This draw also gives us the opportunity to make amends for the recent defeat Malta suffered against one of the teams in the group (the Faroe Islands).

“We must prepare in the best way possible for the UEFA Nations League, starting with this month’s friendly matches against Gibraltar and Azerbaijan.”

Mangia will lead his charges against familiar opposition in the form of the Faroe Islands, who were paired with Malta in the last edition of the UEFA Nations League as well as the European Championship qualifiers.

Latvia are also likely to provide tough competition for the Maltese as the former Soviet Republic will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing performance in both the UEFA Nations League, where they suffered relegation to lowest division in the championships, and the Euro 2020 qualifiers which saw them end bottom of Group G with just one win from nine matches.

Andorra, on the other hand, should on paper be on equal footing with the national team even though they are coming from a very encouraging Euro 2020 campaign which saw them avoid bottom place in Group J after scoring an historic win over Moldova, their first victory in the competition after a lapse of 21 years.

Group Two is  more balanced as it pits against each other San Marino, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein.

The matches will be played between September and November with the top team in the division proceeding to promotional play-offs.

LEAGUE D DRAW

Group 1: Malta; Latvia; Andorra; Faroe Islands

Group 2: San Marino; Gibraltar; Liechtenstein

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.