The Malta national team showed two different facets in this month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers which saw them face Italy at the Stadio San Nicola in Bari and then host Ukraine at the National Stadium on Tuesday night.

While in both matches the national team returned home with no points in the bag, the performances of the team were completely different.

Against Italy, we saw a national team that looked overwhelmed by the occasion and looked terrorised instead of trying to play positive football as they feared to be left defensively exposed and end up suffering a comprehensive defeat, which was still the case as they were beaten 4-0.

Fast forward three days and the national team took to the pitch to face another Euro 2024 qualifying contender, Ukraine, completely transformed, producing their best performance in this year’s qualifying campaign.

After the match against Italy, the national team players were lambasted for lacking character and personality but against Ukraine the team was firing on all cylinders right from the outset.

The players showed a completely different attitude as they played fearless attacking football against more-quoted opponents, pressing high up the pitch.

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.com

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